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COFVRIGHT DEPOSm 



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Roubidouxs 
Ranch 



In the 70's 



By 
Robert Hornbeck, Reclands. 
Former Correspondent: Rocky Mountain News; Globe-Democrat; 
Toledo Blade. 



riverside: 
press printing company. 

1913 



COPYKIGHT 1913 

t By lloji:rt Ilorr.leck 







/V^ 



!C!,A358221 



"7^ is not merely by magnitude of territory 
or numbers of inhabitants that the importance 
of a country is to be measured. 

"The wisdom of the institutions, the heroism 
of actions, the patriotism of the people, consti- 
tute the only real passport to immortality. 

"It is refreshing to find one instance in which 
order has co-existed with freedom, social ha2)pi- 
ness with independence, heavy public burdens 
with unshaken faith. 

"It encourages the pleasing hope that means 
may yet be found of reconciling the contending 
interests of society; of elevating labor without 
destroying property; of affording protection 
without encouraging license. ^^ 

— Sir Archibald Alison. 



These pages should not be dignified by the 
name of "history." They may prove of some 
value to the future historian. It is a matter 
upon which the writer congratulates himself 
that as he has grown older he seems to have 
forgotten much of the evil that men have 
done and remembers only the good; this 
alone debars him from the historian's career. 

Nevertheless, he is thankful for such a poor 
memory — the recollections which remain are 
so much more pleasant. 

The principal object of the writer has been 
to do justice to the pioneers. Philosophical 
reflections belong to the writers of history, or 
to the reader himself, who is capable of form- 
ing a just estimate if the facts are furnished 
to him. 

The writer frankly confesses that there is 
not much originality in some of his chapters; 




he considered it necessary for his ultimate 
purpose to draw freely from standard author- 
ities. He claims a little, however, for him- 
self in regard to matters which he saw and 
in which he had a part. 




CONTENTS 



I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XI. 

XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 



The First California Boomer 9 

Spanish Colonial Rule 20 

California Under Spanish and Mexican 
Rule 35 

Don Juan Bandini and the Jurupa Grant 52 

California Becomes an American State 67 

Louis Roubidoux 80 

"A Colony for California" 90 

The First Americans Arrive at River- 
side 104 

Discourag"ements, Failures, Successes 121 

What Gring-os Learned from Greasers 135 

Early Churches 146 

The Navel Oransfe 161 



1875 



172 



A Chang-e of Ownership 182 

First Newspapers 197 

Nothing- But Oranges 212 

*'Floatinsr" a Grant 220 





ILLUSTRATIONS 

1370 Frontispiece 

Don Juan Bandini ^^ 

Louis Roubidoux ^® 

J. W. North 9^ 

Dr. J. P. Greves 104 

Dr. K. D. Shugart 128 

Mrs. Eliza Tibbetts 1^8 

A Sky-scraper of 1878 192 

How It Looked in 1883 200 

1883 208 

Looking North, 1883 216 

Looking West, 1883 224 




mm 






CHAPTER I. 

THE FIRST CALIFORNIA BOOMER. 

The first boomer for California was Her- 
nando Cortes, the Conqueror of Mexico. 
This remarkable man, worthy to be classed 
as a warrior and statesman with Alexander 
and Csesar, was born in 1485 at Medellin, a 
town in the province of Estramadura, Spain. 
It is agreed that he came of poor but honest 
parents. On his mother's side he was related 
to Pizarro, the bloodthirsty and rapacious 
Conqueror of Peru. He had a feeble consti- 
tution as a youth, exhibited little fondness 
for books, and after loitering away two years 
at college returned home, to the great grief 
of his father. He showed a great inclination 
to the military profession, and at the age of 
seventeen, his father gave up all hopes of 
making a lawyer out of him and let the 



10 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



headstrong youth have his own way. About 
this time, the year 1502, Cortes turned his 
attention to the New World, where gold as 
well as glory was to be won. To use his own 
words, he wished for "great dangers and 
great wealth." 

Just as he was about to embark from 
Seville witli the expedition of Don Nicolas 
de Ovando, he received a severe injury in a 
dishonorable adventure which compelled 
him to remain in Spain some time longer. 
At length in 1504, when nineteen years old, 
he sailed from his native land on board a 
vessel belonging to a small squadron bound 
for the West Indies. This was the same year 
in which Queen Isabella died. In due time 
Cortes reached Hispaniola and at once called 
to see the Governor whom he had personally 
known in Spain. That official was absent on 
a distant expedition, but his secretary assured 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



11 



Cortes that there would be no doubt about 
his getting a liberal grant of land to settle 
upon. "But I come to get gold," replied the 
bumptious youth, "not to till the soil like a 
peasant." The Governor finally persuaded 
him to become a planter; soil and laborers 
were free gifts from the state. He was also 
appointed a notar}^, an office of honor and 
profit. 

In 1511 we find him going with Velasquez 
to conquer Cuba; he displayed activity and 
courage and was a favorite with the soldiers. 
After the subjugation of the island, he be- 
came secretary to Governor Velasquez, and 
had so far overcome his early physical weak- 
ness that he was acknowledged to have been 
handsome. During these years his biograph- 
ers refer to a number of dishonorable affairs. 
He finally became engaged to a beautiful 
lady named Dona Catalina Xuarez, a native 




12 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



of Granada. She was uneducated and much 
his inferior, and he seems to have repented 
his promise, showing no haste to comply with 
it. He also incurred the enmity of the Gov- 
ernor, who pl&ced him in prison and it is 
said was disposed to hang him. Cortes es- 
caped and took refuge in a church, claiming 
sanctuary. He was recaptured owing to his 
own carelessness, put in irons, and sent to 
Hispaniola for trial. He again escaped, got 
almost to shore in a small boat and was 
saved by his strength as a swimmer. He 
now married Dona Catalina, the Governor 
relented, and Cortes again settled down as a 
planter. 

Several quiet years passed, during which 
occurred Cordova and Grijalva's discoveries 
of Yucatan and Mexico. Velasquez listened 
eagerly to proposals for conquest of the 
country and appointed Cortes commander of 









^^ 






ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



13 



the expedition for that purpose. Cortes em- 
barked his whole fortune in the enterprise, 
and all he could borrow from his friends. 
How like the typical boomer! The expedi- 
tion sailed from Santiago de Cuba in 1519. 
Cortes incurred the lasting enmity of Velas- 
quez by taking a hasty departure before the 
Governor had time to recall his commission 
and instructions, which he contemplated. 

Cortes spent only two years in the con- 
quest of Mexico, during which time he met 
with some reverses, but such was the prestige 
of his name that men flocked to his banner. 
Finally the City of Mexico was taken and 
destroyed. The whole country quietly sub- 
mitted. The acts of Cortes were fully con- 
firmed by the Emperor Charles V. He was 
made Governor, Captain-General and Chief 
Justice of New Spain, with power to appoint 
to all offices, civil and military. A liberal 



14 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



salary was provided. From that time, 1522, 
the real greatness of Cortes begins as an ex- 
plorer, discoverer and statesman. 

In four years the cit}'- of INIexico was entire- 
ly rebuilt on a splendid scale, and contained 
a population of 250,000. The attention of 
the conqueror was not confined to the capital. 
He established settlements at every point 
where conditions seemed to be favorable. 
Liberal grants of land were made and local 
self-government instituted. He required 
every settler, if a married man, to bring over 
his wife within eighteen months on pain of 
forfeiting his estate. If he were too poor to 
<lo this, the government would assist him. 
Another law imposed the same penalty upon 
l)achelors who did not provide themselves 
with wives within the same period. Celibacy 
was too great a luxury for a young country. 
Dona Catalina came over from Cuba by 
operation of these laws. 



EOUBIDOrX S RANCH. 



15 



Cortes recommended tliat all vessels com- 
ing to Mexico from Spain be required to bring- 
over a certain quantity of seeds and plants. 
He made it a condition of the grants of land 
that the proprietor of every estate should 
plant a certain number of vines. No one 
could get a clear title until he had occupied 
his land eight years. This was the earliest 
American Homestead Law. The agricultural 
resources of the country v/ere augmented by 
the addition of the most important grains, 
fruits and vegetables of Europe. The sugar- 
cane, peach, orange, vine, almond and olive, 
before unknown, flourished under the sun of 
the tropics. 

While thus occupied, Cortes was still fur- 
thering great schemes of discovery and con- 
quest. He was prohibited from going south, 
as ever}i,hing southward was embraced in 
Peru. After subjugating Honduras and 







16 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



Guatemala he turned his attention north and 
west. At Zacatula, one of his ports on the 
Pacific, he caused a little fleet to be fitted 
out, but it was burned in the dock-yard. 
Promptly he took measures to repair the loss, 
and caused most of the materials to be trans- 
ported across the country from Vera Cruz. 
The principal object of the expedition was 
the discovery of a strait connecting the At- 
lantic and Pacific. No such strait was found, 
but a third voyage of discovery in 1533 dis- 
covered the peninsula of Lower California 
and the gulf, or "Sea of Cortes," as it is still 
called by the Mexicans. A fourth expedition 
in 1539 penetrated to the head of the gulf. 
The officer in charge, Ulloa, sailed back and 
around on the Pacific side to latitude 29, 
sent home a vessel with news of his discov- 
eries, and then boldlv sailed on to the north, 
but was never again heard of. 








ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



17 



Cortes was almost bankrupted by the ex- 
pense of these expeditions. They had cost 
him a sum which was probably $5,000,000, 
or more, of present valuation, without any 
return. He was obliged to borrow mone}'' 
by mortgaging his estates and pawning his 
wife's jewels. He never succeeded in dis- 
charging these debts. However disastrous 
from a financial point of view, they were 
glorious in added contributions to science. 
Prescott says: "In the course of these expe- 
ditions, the Pacific had been coasted from 
the Bay of Panama to the Rio Colorado; the 
great peninsula of California had been cir- 
cumnavigated; this vast tract, which had 
been supposed to be an archipelago of islands, 
was discovered to be a part of the continent; 
and its general outline, as appears from maps 
of the time, was nearly as well understood 
as at the present day; lastly, the navigator 




18 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



had explored the recesses of the Californian 
Gulf, and had ascertained that instead of the 
outlet before supposed to exist towards the 
north, this unknown ocean was locked up 
within the arms of the mighty continent. 
These were results that might have made the 
glory and satisfied the ambition of a com- 
mon man, but they are lost in the brilliant 
renown of the former achievements of 
Cortes." 

To Hernando Cortes we are therefore in- 
debted for the discovery of California, for 
the germ of our homestead law, and for the 
introduction of the vine, the orange and the 
olive, which have played such an important 
part in tlie development of California. 

Although Cortes was morally responsible 
for the enslavement of the Mexican Indians, 
he wrote thus in his will: "It has long been 
a question whether one can conscientiously 




ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



19 



hold property in Indian slaves. Since this 
point has not yet been determined, I enjoin 
it on my son Martin and his heirs, that they 
spare no pains to come to an exact know- 
ledge of the truth, as a matter which deeply 
concerns the consciences of each of them, no 
less than mine." He also enjoins his heirs 
to refund all tribute paid by his vassal Indi- 
ans. 

Thus Cortes seems to have been an aboli- 
tionist about seventy-three years before the 
introduction of negro slavery into Virginia. 
The question of the right to hold property in 
man has long since been settled against that 
monstrous doctrine. But it is worthy of note 
that almost three centuries before it became 
a burning question in our country, it agitated 
the mind of the mighty Conqueror of Mex- 
ico so much that he practically emancipated 
his slaves and gave them back something of 
an equivalent for wages. 



CHAPTER IL 

SPANISH COLONIAL RULE. 

The wise and beneficent rule of Cortes was 
cut short by the home government. It 
became a maxim of policy in the court of 
Madrid not to leave such of their subjects, as 
had effected important discoveries or con- 
quests, time enough to settle themselves in 
their authority. They were in perpetual fear 
that the conquerors might think of making 
themselves independent of the crown. If the 
Conqueror of Mexico did not give an excuse 
for adopting such a system, he was at least 
one of the first victims of it. The unlimited 
powers he had at first enjoyed were daily 
curtailed: and in process of time they were 
so exceedingly restrained that he preferred a 
private situation to the vain appearance of 
an authoritv with the 2;reatest mortification. 



ROUBIDOrx's EA^'CH. 21 

He was even on the point of being seized and 
sent to Spain, precisely as Columbus had 
been served. Disgusted and indignant at 
this premeditated insult, he returned to 
Spain, where he was received with outward 
respect and honors, but not allowed to re- 
sume his authority in America. 

The whole Spanish dominion in America 
was divided into two great governments: one 
subject to the Viceroy of New Spain, or Mex- 
ico, and the other to the Viceroy of Peru. 
The jurisdiction of the former extended over 
all the provinces north of the Isthmus of 
Panama; that of the latter over all the South 
American provinces. The inconveniences of 
this arrangement were felt at an early period 
and they became intolerable when the re- 
mote provinces had inreased in population. 
So wide was the extent of these dominions 
that many places subject to the jurisdiction 






22 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



of the viceroys were at such an enormous 
distances from the capitals in which they re- 
sided, that no authority could effectually 
reach them. Some districts subject to the 
Viceroyalty of Mexico lay at a distance of 
2000 miles from the seat of government. The 
people in these remote quarters could hardly 
be said to enjoy the benefits of civil govern- 
ment. The oppression and insolence of petty 
magistrates were borne in silence, as no re- 
dress could be obtained except by a long and 
expensive journey to the capital. A partial 
remedy for these evils was at length applied 
at the beginning of the eighteenth century 
by the erection of California, Sinaloa, Sono- 
ra and New Navarre into a separate govern- 
ment, without, however, the rank of a vice- 
royalty. 

The viceroys of these rich and extensive 
countries not onl}^ represented the person of 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



23 



their sovereign, but possessed his royal pre- 
rogatives in their utmost strength, within 
the precincts of their own government. 
Their authority was supreme in every de- 
partment, civil, military and criminal. They 
presided over every tribunal, and had the 
sole right of nominating to offices of the 
highest importance. The external pomp of 
their government corresponded to its real 
dignity and power. The court was formed 
on the model of that at the Spanish capital, 
with horse and foot guards. They possessed 
a household regularly established; numerous 
attendants and insignia of command, and 
made a display of pompous magnificence 
which hardly bore the semblance of delegat- 
ed authority. The government of Madrid, 
with characteristic jealousy, being conscious 
of all this and of the innumerable opportu- 
nities the viceroys possessed of amassing 



24 



ROUBIDOUX S RA^'CH. 



wealth, permitted them to remain in office 
only a few years; which circumstance only 
increased their rapacity, and added to the 
ingenuity with which they labored to im- 
prove every moment of power, which they 
knew was hastening rapidly to a close. They 
were then succeeded by others, who had the 
same motives to pursue the same conduct, 
and being generally chosen out of families 
of distinction, decayed in fortune, the prov- 
inces thus became exhausted by avarice and 
oppression. 

The viceroys were aided in their govern- 
ment by officers and tribunals similar to 
those in Spain. The administration of jus- 
tice was vested in courts known by the name 
of Audiencias. These were eleven in num- 
ber, dispensing justice to as many districts. 
Their sentences were final in all cases of 
property below the value of $6000; above 





ROUBIDOrX S KA^'CH. Jo 

this, the case was subject to review, and 
might be carried by appeal before the Royal 
Council of the Indies in Spain. 

The first object of the Spanish government, 
aft^r reducing the native Americans to sub- 
jection and establishing the colonies in per- 
petual dependence on the parent state, was 
to secure a monopoly of their commerce. In 
order to prevent the colonies from making 
any efforts in trade or manufacture that 
might interfere with the business of the 
mother country, the home government pro- 
hibited, by the severest penalties, the estab- 
lishment of the staple manufactures of 
Spain, and the culture of the vine and olive. 
The inhabitants trusted to Old Spain both 
for articles of luxury and prime necessity. 
In exchange for these, the colonies sent to 
Spain the products of their mines and plan- 
tations. All that they produced flowed into 







26 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



the ports of Spain, and nearly all that they 
consumed issued from them. No foreigner 
could enter one of the Spanish-American 
settlements without express permission; for- 
eign vessels were excluded from their ports, 
and the penalty of death and confiscation 
was denounced against all who presumed to 
trade with them. Nor did the jealousy and 
narrow maxims of the Spanish government 
stop there. All communication was prohib- 
ited between one province and another along 
the Pacific Ocean, though each of these 
yielded peculiar productions, which could 
have been interchanged, to the great promo- 
tion of the wealth, industry and happiness 
of the people. Hostile nations have enjoyed 
more intercourse with each other than was 
permitted to the Spaniards of Mexico, Peru, 
New Granada and Guatemala. 

Such is the general outline of the ancient 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



27 



government of Spanish America — a system 
dictated by avarice and ambition, selfish and 
short-sighted, and rendered still more op- 
pressive by superstition. Never, perhaps, was 
a despotism established with so little regard 
to the rights of humanity; the natives en- 
slaved, the colonists subjected to the arbitra- 
ry will of a constant succession of hungry 
and rapacious rulers, who preyed upon their 
vitals with the remorseless greediness of so 
many vultures; prohibited from supplying 
their own wants, from intercourse with for- 
eigners or the neighboring colonies of their 
own countrymen, and obliged to purchase 
the produce of the mother country at an ex- 
travagant price. In order to secure the mo- 
nopoly at which she aimed, Spain conducted 
all her trade with America by means of two 
fleets with strong convoys, one named the 
galeons and the other the flota; they were 



28 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



equipped annually and sailed from Seville, 
touching at Cadiz. In consequence of such 
a restricted mode of communication, the 
profits on merchandise exported to America 
generally amounted to two and three hun- 
dred per cent. 

Population was not likely to make rapid 
advances in settlements where men had so 
few inducemants to think of their posterity; 
nor was industry likely to flourish under all 
these discouragements. As a further check 
upon both, the church, under the same form 
as in Spain, was established here, with its 
full train of archbishops, bishops, deans, and 
other dignitaries, exacting a tenth out of the 
produce of the planter. This tax on industry 
which is no slight oppression to society even 
in its most improved state, was highly griev- 
ous to the infant colonies, as it affected everv 
article of prime necessity. The industr}^ of 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



29 



the planter was taxed in every stage of its 
progress, but so fertile were the regions which 
the settlers occupied, that population gradu- 
ally increased, in spite of every hindrance 
from the government, and the colonies were 
filled with citizens of various distinct orders. 
Among these the natives of Old Spain held 
the first rank, by the name of chapetones; 
and from the jealousy of the Spanish court 
in securing the dependence of the colonies, 
every office of importance was filled from this 
class of persons. Those, who by their birth 
or long residence in America, might be sus- 
pected to have any interest separate from 
that of the mother country, were objects of 
distrust to such an degree that it amounted 
nearly to an exclusion from all offices of trust 
or authority. The chapetones, therefore, were 
raised to such a pre-eminence in Spanish 
America, that they looked down Avith disdain 
on every other order of men. 



30 



ROUBIDOUX 8 RANCH. 



The Creoles, or descendants of Europeans 
settled in America, formed the second class 
of subjects in the Spanish colonies. Some 
of these were the posterity of the original 
conquerors, and others belonged to the no- 
blest families of Spain, but by the enervating 
influence of a sultry climate, and other causes, 
the original vigor of their minds became so 
entirely broken, that the greater part of them 
were accustomed to waste life in luxurious 
indulgence. Commerce was too laborious an 
employment for them; and the interior traf- 
fic of the colonies, as well as that with Spain, 
was carried on solely by the chapetones, who 
acquired immense wealth by this means, at 
the same time that they engrossed the emol- 
uments of the government. The various 
passions excited by this distinction of rank 
and character, settled down into the most 
implacable hatred betAveen these two classes, 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



31 



which, even at an early period, broke out 
into occasional ferments. From a refinement 
in their distrustful policy, the court of Spain 
cherished the seeds of discord, and fomented 
this mutual jealousy, hoping to prevent the 
two most powerful classes of its subjects 
in the New World from combining against 
the parent state. The further effects of these 
animosities are exhibited in the revolutions 
to which Spanish America has been subjected. 
The third class of colonists was a mixed 
race, the offspring of a European and a ne- 
gro, or of a European and an Indian, the for- 
mer a mulatto and the latter a mestizo. The 
several stages of descent in their race, and 
the gradual variations of shade, until the 
African black or the copper-color of America 
brightened into a European complexion, were 
accurately marked by the Spaniards and each 
distinguished by a peculiar name. The me- 



32 



ROUBIDOUX'S RANCH 



chanic arts were chiefly carried on by this 
mixed race, whose form is remarkably robust 
and hardy. The negroes held the fourth 
rank, and were chiefly employed in domestic 
service. They were much caressed by their 
masters, whose manners they imitated, and 
whose passions they imbibed. Their dress 
and external appearance were hardly inferior 
to that of their lords. Elevated by this dis- 
tinction, they assumed a tone of superiority 
over the Indians, and treated them with such 
insolence, that the antipathy between the 
two races became deep and inveterate. 

The Indians formed the fifth and most de- 
pressed order of inhabitants in that country 
which belonged to their ancestors. By the 
edict of Charles V., which caused such dis- 
turbances, the Indians were exempted from 
involuntary services; but so much inconven- 
ience was experienced in carrying this edict 




ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



33 



into literal execution, that, after many fruit- 
less attempts, the project was abandoned; 
and measures were taken to secure the labor 
of the Indians, and make them contribute to 
the support of the government, at the same 
time regarding them as freemen. A yearly 
tax was laid upon every male from eighteen 
years of age to fifty, and the nature and de- 
gree of the services required were fixed with 
precision. Every Indian was either an im- 
mediate vassal of the crown, or a dependant 
upon some person to whom the district where 
he lived had been granted for a limited time, 
under the name of an encomienda. In the 
former case about three-fourths of the tax 
was paid into the royal treasury; in the lat- 
ter, the same proportion went to the holder 
of the grant. According to the same rule, 
the benefit arising from the services of the 
Indians accrued either to the crown or to the 




34 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



grantee of the encomienda. The nature of the 
work was not only defined, but a recompense 
assigned, seemingly equitable. On many 
occasions, however, both from the avarice of 
individuals and the exactions of the magis- 
trates, unreasonable tasks were imposed, the 
term of labor prolonged, and they were made 
to groan under all the insults and wrongs of 
an enslaved and degraded people. The mines 
were the great source of their oppression. 
Their constitutions were exhausted, and their 
bodies worn down, by extracting ore from 
the bowels of the earth, and refining it by a 
process no less laborious than unhealthy. 
How often must they have cursed the fatal 
wealth of their soil, which not only tempted 
the Spaniards to conquest, but doomed them 
to a condition more completely wretched 
than that of any other vanquished race! 




CHAPTER III. 

CALIFORNIA UNDER SPANISH AND MEXICAN RULE. 

The first permanent settlement in Califor- 
nia by white people was made at San Diego 
in 1769, by Franciscan monks. To the order 
of Franciscans was given by the Viceroy of 
New Spain the task of settling California 
and converting the natives. Subsequently 
twenty-one "missions," as they were called, 
were founded, chiefly on or near the coast. 
The Franciscans were men of peace; they 
were good farmers, horticulturists and artis- 
ans; the architecture of their churches has 
moved the admiration of all succeeding gen- 
erations; they knew how to make lime and 
cement, hew stone, burn brick, saw timber, 
carve wood and work iron. They reduced 
their Indian converts to a mild form of slav- 
ery, but showed them how to raise grain and 



36 



KOUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



produce, build comfortable houses and be- 
come self-suataining. Their government was 
purely patriarchal; no Indian owned the 
land upon which he lived; individual owner- 
ship of land was something which the Indian 
of the Pacific could no more understand than 
his brother on the Atlantic. The Spanish 
view was that the whole country belonged to 
the king and the Indians had no rights which 
the white man was bound to respect. After 
the secularization of the missions, the Indian 
relapsed into his former state of barbarism. 
Neither the religion nor the arts of the good 
Franciscans made any impression which 
stayed after their influence was removed. 

Notwithstanding the opposition of the 
Franciscans, the viceroyal government per- 
sisted in establishing military occupation of 
California and a semblance at least of civil 
government. A governor was appointed and 




EOUBIDOrXS RANCH. 



37 



lailitary posts maintained at San Diego, Los 
Angeles, Monterey and San Francisco. For- 
eigners were prohibited from living in the 
country unless they became members of the 
church and citizens. Such a policy did not 
induce immigration and settlement. 

It should be borne in mind that California 
was a sort of "territory" of New Spain, and 
all officials were appointed by the central 
government. What more natural, if the vice- 
roy had a needy and importunate relative or 
friend than to ship him off to California with 
a commission as governor or judge? We 
have seen the same thing done in our day 
under the territorial system. It was a good 
way to get rid of office-seekers. The gover- 
nors and judges were invested with ample 
powers, and while their acts were subject to 
review, the expense and uncertainty of an 
appeal by an aggrieved party made it almost 



38 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



certain that the decisions of territorial offi- 
cials would be final. One of the powers given 
to them was to make grants of land to pri- 
vate persons, which policy was continued by 
the Mexican Republic and entailed gross 
fraud, losses and extensive litigation down 
to our own day. 

The condition of California for many years 
was anarchical with some bloodless attempts 
at revolution. The authority of the gover- 
nors was shadowy unless backed up by mili- 
tary force. The peaceful sway of the Fran- 
ciscans was almost gone ; the Indian women 
became the easy prey of the licentious sold- 
iers and hangers-on around the various towns. 
The industries of the country were almost all 
embraced in the raising of cattle. 

No farming or horticulture worthy of the 
name was carried on except around the mis- 
sions. There was no object for the owner of 




ROUBIDOUXS KANCH. 



39 



thousands of acres to raise any more grain 
or produce than he could use on his ranch. 
The extensive mines of gold were left for an- 
other race to find and exploit. The narrow 
and jealous colonial policy kept away all 
communication with foreigners, who were 
also too remote to be much interested. Japan 
and China were closed, having nothing to do 
with the rest of the world. California under 
Spanish rule was a veritable "terra incognita." 
Settlement was confined to a narrow strip 
along the coast except in the south, where a 
mission was established as far east as the 
present site of Kedlands, but this was not 
done until 1824. The "circulating medium" 
was a "double standard" of cattle and hides. 
It might almost be said that it was a "single 
standard" of hides alone, as the cattle were 
usually "converted" into them. A "bank" 
of those days was a large storehouse for the 



40 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



safe-keeping of hides. The most famous ar- 
tisan was the one who could make the best 
saddle. Communication with Mexico Avas 
kept up mainly by infrequent sailing vessels. 

The Mexican war of independence began 
in 1810, and excited little attention in Cali- 
fornia except among the officials, who were 
of course anxious to hold on to their offices. 
The ways of the office-holder seem to have 
been the same in all generations. Mexico 
became independent of Spain in 1822, first 
under the short-lived "empire" of Iturbide, 
which lasted ten months, and then under a 
republic. The new government affected ac- 
tual social conditions in California very little 
immediately. 

It Avas still a territory of the Mexican Re- 
public but was allowed a sort of local legis- 
lature elected by the people. The governor 
was to be appointed by the President, and 



ROUBIDOUX'S RAIiCH. 



41 



each territory was allowed a representative 
in the national congress. Thus it will be 
seen that the American system was copied 
exactly. The success of the revolution was 
bitterly disappointing to the mission fathers; 
they had hoped and prayed for the success of 
Spain. The downfall of Spanish domination 
and the rise of republicanism meant the doom 
of their feudal institutions. They refused 
allegiance to the new government. This 
policy on the part of the monks led the Mexi- 
can government to secularize the missions a 
few years later. 

The new republican government shortly 
after its inauguration removed most of the 
restrictions imposed by Spain against foreign- 
ers settling in California. The colonization 
law of 1824 was quite liberal. The state re- 
ligion was Roman Catholic and all foreigners 
who settled in the country were required to 



42 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



be baptized into the church. Previous to 
1824 probably not more than half a dozen 
foreigners had been allowed to become per- 
manent residents of California. 

In 1822 the first American ship reached 
the California coast from Boston. This pio- 
neer ship was named the "Sachem." It 
brought to the coast a number of Americans 
who became permanent residents of the coun- 
try. California was a long distance from the 
centers of trade and had but few products for 
exchange that would bear the cost of trans- 
portation. Its chief commodities for barter 
were hides and tallow. The vast range of 
country adapted to cattle-raising made that 
its most profitable industry. After the re- 
strictions on foreign commerce had been re- 
moved a profitable trade grew up between 
the New England ship owners and the Cali- 
fornians. 



ROUBIDOUX'S RANCH, 



43 



Vessels were fitted out at Boston with a 
cargo of assorted goods suitable for the Cali- 
fornia trade. Voyaging around Cape Horn, 
they reached California and stopping at var- 
ious points along the coast they exchanged 
their stock of goods and Yankee notions for 
hides and tallow. It took at least two years 
to make the voyage from Boston and return, 
but the profits on the goods sold and the 
hides received in exchange were so large that 
these ventures paid handsomely. Cattle-rais- 
ing continued to be the principal industry up 
to 1848. 

California shared in the general anarchy 
which prevailed in Mexico for the twenty- 
four years after the formation of the republic. 
The most important act of the central govern- 
ment was the final secularization of the mis- 
sions in 1834. The missions were founded by 
Spain nominally for the conversion of the 



44 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



Indians and their transformation into citi- 
zens, but primarily to hold California for fear 
of its occupancy by other nations and to pro- 
tect Philippine trade. As originally planned 
by the Spanish government, at the end of ten 
years from its founding each mission estab- 
lishment was to be secularized and the land 
divided among the Christian Indians. It be- 
came apparent very early that while the In- 
dian might be made over into something like 
a Christian, he could not be made into a self- 
supporting citizen. 

The Indians inhabiting the country be- 
tween the Coast Range and the ocean had 
been gathered into the various missionary 
establishments and had been taught by the 
fathers and overseers some industrial callings. 
While controlled and directed by the priests 
and white overseers, the Indian could be 
made in a measure self-supporting, but the 



ROUBIDOUX'S RANCH. 



45 



restraint once removed, he lapsed into his 
former mode of Ufe. Each of the religious 
establishments held in trust for its retainers 
large areas of the most fertile lands in Cali- 
fornia. This absorption of the public domain 
by the missions prevented the colonization 
of the country by white settlers. 

In 1832 Governor Figueroa was instructed 
to examine into the condition of the Indians 
and report on the best method of bringing 
about a gradual emancipation from mission- 
ary rule. He became convinced that any 
general measure of secularization would be 
disastrous. A few converts might be trusted 
with property and given their liberty, but 
the great mass were incapable of self-support 
or self-government. The governor visited 
the older missions in the south with the pur- 
pose of putting into effect his plan for their 
gradual secularization. He found the Indians 



46 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



at San Luis Rey and San Diego indifferent 
to offers of freedom and caring nothing for 
any property of their own unless they could 
at once dispose of it. Only ten families could 
be induced to try emancipation. 

The Mexican congress in the meantime, 
without waiting for the governor's report or 
those best acquainted with the true condi- 
tions, ordered immediate emancipation. The 
decree ordering the secularization of the mis- 
sions was dated August 17, 1832, and applied 
to both Upper and Lower California. Each 
mission was to be a parish served by a priest 
or a curate, who should receive a salary. The 
monks Avho had taken the oath of allegiance 
to the republic were to return to their mon- 
asteries while those who had refused to take 
the oath were compelled to quit the country. 
The expense of putting in operation this de- 
cree was to be paid out of the "Pious Fund." 




ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



47 



The "Pious Fund of California" was a fund 
made up of contributions of pious persons 
for the founding of missions and their main- 
tenance in Lower California in 1697. It h d 
increased to $1,500,000 in 1822. The Mexi- 
can government being badly in need of 
money finally confiscated it, but after long 
litigation the Catholic church of California 
was given judgment for its loss by the Hague 
Tribunal in 1902. 

Governor Figueroa and the territorial gov- 
ernment finally adopted a plan for the secu- 
larization of the missions of California and 
the colonization of the Indians into settle- 
ments. Each head of a family was to receive 
from the mission lands a lot not more than 
forty acres or not less than five acres, approx- 
imately. One half of the cattle and half of 
the farming implements and seed were to be 
divided pro rata among the recipients of 



48 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



lands. Out of the proceeds of the remaining 
property, which was to be placed under an 
overseer, the salaries of himself and the priest 
were to be paid. No one could sell or mort- 
gage his land or kill his cattle except for his 
own living. The government of the Indian 
settlements was to be administered the same 
as that of the other towns. 

The threat of secularization had hung over 
the missions for years, but something had 
always occurred to avert it. When it became 
evident that the blow would fall the business- 
like missionaries determined to save some- 
thing for themselves before the crash came. 
There were 700,000 head of cattle on the 
ranges in 1834. San Gabriel was the rich- 
est and had over 70,000 head. Thousands of 
these were slaughtered for their hides alone 
and the carcasses left on the ground to rot. 
So terrible was the stench that the town 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



49 



council of Los Angeles passed an ordinance 
compelling every person killing cattle for 
their hides to burn the carcasses. The legis- 
lature finally passed a law prohibiting the 
wholesale destruction of mission cattle. What 
was left of the mission property was inven- 
toried by a commission appointed by the 
governor and a portion given to the Indians 
who had formerly been attached by feudal 
tenure to the mission lands. It may be 
safely inferred that the commissioners did 
not overlook themselves in the distribution. 
The property given to the Indians was soon 
wasted; the natural improvidence of the na- 
tive was further augmented by his acquire- 
ment of the Spanish vice of gambling; he 
would not work unless compelled to; liberty 
to him meant freedom to do as he pleased; 
his property soon passed from him and he 
again became virtually the slave of the white 
man or else an outlaw. 



50 



KOUBIDOUX S EANCH. 



The final attempt to convert and civilize 
the Indians of California was to leave them 
in a worse condition than before, because 
they retained all the vices of the white man 
and none of the virtues. The worst of these 
vices came from the general introduction of 
wine and brandy-making. The mission fa- 
thers were not prohibitionists; in those days 
wine and brandy were looked upon by all 
Spaniards as necessaries of life. Among their 
accomplishments the missionaries and Span- 
ish settlers also possessed the art of making 
wines and brandy. The Indians were used 
in this work; they cultivated the vineyards 
and gathered the grapes; they crushed out 
the juice by tramping on the fruit with their 
bare feet; all the processes of making the 
white man's "fire water" became familiar to 
them, and wliatever else the Indian forgot 
he did not forget these. The woes of subject 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



51 



races were repeated in California; changing 
from savagery to civilization had reduced 
their numbers from 76,000 to 48,000. The 
gospel and alcohol went hand in hand, the 
same as in Massachusetts, New York,Virginia, 
Africa, Hawaii, Samoa and, alas, everywhere 
else to which the Message of Peace and Good 
Will has been borne. The simple natives of 
California, happy in their ignorance, were 
degraded and corrupted. It is one of the 
wonders of our modern civilization that a 
barrel of whiskey has always seemed to be 
more potent than a cargo of missionaries. 



CHAPTER IV. 

DON JUAN BANDINI AND THE JURUPA GRANT. 

About ninety miles northeastward from 
the Port of San Pedro there rises almost 
sheer from the level plain, a mountain to 
which the Franciscans gave, of course, the 
name of a saint — San Bernardino. St. Ber- 
nardine of Sienna is one of the numerous 
minor saints of the church. This mountain 
and its near neighbor, which the Spaniards 
named San Gorgonio — another saint — but 
which the prosaic Americans called "Old 
Grayback," rises 12,000 feet above the sea. 
Some twenty miles southward another moun- 
tain rises almost as high — San Jacinto, one 
more saint. Both these mountains are recip- 
ients of an enormous snowfall during the 
winter months, and from the combined snows 
and rains come the waters which irrigate the 
valle3^s toward the sea. 



ROUBIDOUX S RA^'CH. 



53 



The Indians have a tradition that vSan Ja- 
cinto was once &n active volcano, and to this 
day they hold the mountain in fear. Even 
in 1899 this vicinity was the scene of a vio- 
lent earthquake, and several times victims of 
superheated ozone at Redlands have seen 
smoke issuing from the mountain top. But 
the mighty mountain still stands at Califor- 
nia's southern gate like a faithless watch- 
dog asleep at his post. 

The longest river in Southern California 
has its sources on the northern side of Mt. 
San Bernardino, and is about 120 miles in 
length. The waters which flow from Mt. San 
Jacinto eventually find their way into this 
river, or at least do so in times of flood. Of 
course the friars gave to this river the name 
of another saint— Santa Ana, or St. Ann. 
The early missionaries and explorers had a 
rooted aversion to the retention of native 



54 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



names for geographical features, and exhaus- 
ted the vocabulary of saints from Chili to 
California. Not once was the name of the 
Great Discoverer bestowed on anything. 
Cristoval (Christopher) is a common name, 
but it is always in honor of San Cristoval, 
another of the thousand-and-one saints. Co- 
lumbus was a foreigner in Spain, and there- 
fore to be despised and hated, more especially 
as he thought the world was round, which 
was against the theology of that day. When 
they ran out of saints they bestowed such 
singular names as " Sangre de Cristo" — 
Blood of Christ; "Corpus Cristi" — Body of 
Christ; "Todos Santos"— All Saints; "Vera 
Cruz"— True Cross; "Madre de Dios"— Mo- 
ther of God; "Nombre de Dios" — Name of 
God; "Puebla de la Nuestra Senora de Los 
Angeles" — City of Our Lady of the Angels. 
One of the most common names given to 



ROUBIDOrX S RANCH. 



55 



boys was Jesus. Such nomenclature the 
Anglo-Saxon would deem sacrilegious. His 
strait-laced regard for the religious proprieties 
received a severe shock when he learned that 
the name of the naked boy who ran to hold 
his horse was the same as the Redeemer. 

After rushing down a picturesque canyon 
and tumbling over miles of rocks, the Santa 
Ana River wound through plains and past 
low hills in a general southwesterly direction. 
Some twelve miles from the mouth of the 
canyon the sides of the river began to be 
fringed with a considerable belt of trees, per- 
haps a mile wide and six miles long. Up 
from the sides of this little timber-covered 
area bluffs rose abruptly and plains stretched 
eastward and westward for many miles. 
These plains were waterless and arid except 
where an occasional creek ran a brief stream 
during the rainy season, from October to 







56 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



April. During the long dry summers these 
plains were deserts for all practical purposes. 
Luscious grasses sprung up with the rains 
and it was here that the great herds of cattle 
fed for six months. 

Reference to the Santa Ana river has been 
made in the past tense, particularly as to its 
flow of water. The newcomer in California 
might well sarcastically exclaim, as many 
did, in the middle of the summer, "Your ri- 
vers seem to have everything in them but 
water." This was and is literally true — in 
summer. The widest stretch of country in 
Southern California between the Coast Range 
and the ocean is under consideration ; where 
the Santa Ana receives into one channel the 
many creeks, rivulets and springs forming its 
sources, is about half a mile above sea level; 
the average fall of the river therefore in its 
length is twenty-five feet to the mile. If the 




DON JUAN BANDINI 



ROUBIDOUXS RA^CH. 



57 



reader will only stop to think that the average 
fall of the Missouri and Mississippi is only a 
few inches per mile, he will at once under- 
stand why Southern California rivers very 
often seem wofully lacking in the essential 
element of dampness. In addition, the Santa 
Ana runs over beds of sand into which sink 
the remaining waters left when the sources 
are no longer fed by rains and the melting 
snows. No rains fall in Southern California 
for periods of six months at a time some 
3^ears. The underground waters in the chan- 
nels are occasionall}' forced to the surface by 
a transverse ledge of rocks, and the "tender- 
foot" will be surprised to encounter a wide 
and deep stream in the course of a few miles 
from a point further up where not a drop was 
to be seen. These remarks will apply to all 
the streams of Southern California; dry in 
summer and raging torrents in winter, when 



58 



KOUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



the abundant rains turn the dry, sandy chan- 
nels into impassable streams sometimes half 
a mile in width, and all within a few hours. 
Perhaps these sudden impulses explain why 
the woman-hating friars named the stream 
for a woman. 

In September of the year 1838 a Spanish 
cavalier rode down through the trees along 
the Santa Ana. Dressed in the picturesque 
national costume, silver ornaments were 
sprinkled liberally on this clothes, hat, sad- 
dle and bridle. A small number of retainers 
was with him. He was an unusually hand- 
some man, and gifted with a serenity of tem- 
per which nothing could ruffle. We may be 
excused for supposing that the abundant 
waters of the river, the grasses and trees did 
not escape his notice as being well adapted 
for a stock ranch. Perhaps he even climbed 
to the top of the highest hill on the eastern 




ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



59 



side and gazed toward San Jacinto. It looked 
good to him. It was farther inland than 
anyone had yet settled, and subject to raids 
by wild Indians who issued from their hiding 
places between the mountains San Bernar- 
dino and San Jacinto down San Gorgonio 
Pass and San Timoteo Canyon. These things 
were doubtless known to the "caballero," who 
was Don Juan Bandini, the first actual set- 
tler on and owner of what is now a part of the 
lands comprising Riverside, the most famous 
orange-raising district in the world — "Nues- 
tra Senora de las Naranjas" — Our Lady of 
the Oranges. 

Don Juan was not a native of California 
nor even of Old Mexico, although a Spanish- 
American. He was born in Peru of Italian 
parentage and landed at San Diego in 1821. 
By reason of his unusual education and abil- 
ity, he very soon became a member of the 



60 



ROUBIDOUX'S RANCH. 



Territorial Assembly. He held many im- 
portant offices, had been delegate to congress, 
and bore a large share in the history of Cali- 
fornia under Mexican rule. The historian of 
the Pacific Coast, Hubert Howe Bancroft, 
says of him: "Bandini was a man of fair 
education and abilities, of generous impulses 
and jovial temperament; famous for his gen- 
tlemanly manners, of good courage in the 
midst of discouragements, and always well 
liked and respected, indeed, his record as a 
citizen is excellent. He also performed hon- 
estly and efficiently the duties of his various 
official positions. He was an eloquent speaker 
and a fluent writer." Here we have a picture 
of a representative of the better class of Span- 
iards and Mexicans who had begun to come 
into California. 

Don Juan made application to the proper 
authorities for a grant of seven leagues of 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH, 



61 



land, which was given to him, and he had the 
good sense to retain the Indian name of "Ju- 
rupa," which is said to mean "peace" or 
"friendship." A league of land was 4440 
English acres, and the Jurupa grant therefore 
was about 31,000 acres. It took in all of the 
low tree-covered bottom lands and averaged 
a mile in width of the elevated plain on the 
eaatern side. 

Don Juan at once began to stock his Juru- 
pa Ranch and built a house in which he and 
his family lived for a while. Don Juan's 
children were among the most famous and 
respected of the Spanish-Americans in Cali- 
fornia. By his first marriage with a daughter 
of Don Juan Estudillo of San Diego his chil- 
dren were Arcadia, who married an American 
Don, Abel Stearns, and afterwards R. S. Ba- 
ker of Los Angeles; Josef a, Seiiora Pedro 
C. Carillo; Ysidora, Seiiora Cave J. Couts; 



62 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



Jose M. and another eon named Juan. Don 
Juan's second wife was Refugia Arguello, of 
another famous family also of San Diego; the 
children by the second marriage were Mrs. 
C. E. Johnston, Mrs. J. B. Winston and Ar- 
turo. 

Four years after Bandini obtained his grant 
another grant was made some miles farther 
up the Santa Ana river and stretching almost 
to the foot of Mt. San Bernardino. It is upon 
the eastern end of this San Bernardino grant, 
as it was called, that another orange-growing 
district in after j^ears became located — Red- 
lands, which divides honors with Riverside 
for beauty and fruit. The early occupants of 
these two grants were greatly troubled by the 
raids of the wild Indians who lived on the 
eastern slopes of the Coast Range and who 
had not come under the influence of the mis- 
sions. They would dash in through the var- 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



63 



ious mountain passes, drive off a band of 
stock and get back to their strongholds, while 
the ranch owners were helpless. In order to 
protect their stock the brothers Lugo, owners 
of San Bernardino Grant, induced a few fami- 
lies from New Mexico to settle about five miles 
from the upper end of Jurupa, and gave them 
half^ a league of land, in exchange for which 
the settlers were to keep off the Indians. 

About the year 1843, Don Juan Bandini 
offered the Mexicans a better location and 
moie land if they would move across the ri- 
ver and settle on the upper of his Jurupa 
Grant. The proposition was accepted and 
five families moved to the new location. This 
became famous in after years as the ''Bandini 
Donation." The settlement became known 
as "Trujillo's Town" to the Mexicans and 
Spanishtown to the Americans. The original 
five families were soon increased by others, 



64 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



and as usual with the Mexicans, they settled 
on the low lands where water could be easily 
diverted for irrigation. They raised grain 
and grapes and had orchards. The whole 
settlement was washed away by a flood in 
1862, and then the settlers built their houses 
of unburned bricks — adobes — on higher 
ground. 

The colonists were employed not only as 
vaqueros on the ranchos, but also acted in 
the capacity of soldiers. The famous Ute In- 
dian chief Cuaka — best known as Walker — 
was very active about this time and his re- 
peated depredations on the stock of the set- 
tlers were very annoying. It was Walker's 
boast that the rancheros were only allowed 
to remain in the valley as stock raisers for 
his special benefit. Nearly every full moon 
he came down from the mountains with his 
band of Indians and these incursions gener- 




ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



65 



ally resulted in loss to the settlers. The In- 
dians were in the habit of running the stock 
into the canyons, and there departing from 
the trails, drive them up over the mountain 
and down the other side of the range into the 
desert. AVhen they had accumulated a suffi- 
cient number of horses they were taken across 
the desert and no difficulty was found in dis- 
posing of the animals at Salt Lake City, which 
was their usual destination. The settlers 
were armed with rifles and were expert in 
their use. In protecting the Bandini stock 
they had many fierce battles with the Indians. 
They usually fought on horseback, but some- 
times it was necessary to follow the Indians 
into the mountains and there dismounting, 
continue the pursuit on foot until the Indians 
were overtaken and the stock recovered; but 
they were not always successful in recovering 
the stock. One of their fights took place in 



66 



ROUFIDQUX S KA?fCH. 



the mountains southeast of where the town 
of Highgrove is now situated. The Indians, 
after capturing sixty head of horses, escaped 
through a path between the mountains. In 
this battle Doroteo Trujillo was shot in the 
back with an arrow; Esquipula Trujillo was 
shot through the nose and Teodoro Trujillo 
was shot in the right foot. They succeeded 
in recapturing the stock. The early settlers 
of California entertained the prevalent West- 
ern opinion of Indians — that the only good 
Indian was a dead one. 




CHAPTER V. 

CALIFORiS:iA BECOMES AN AMERICAN STATE, 

The liberal policy concerning California 
adopted by the Mexican Republic began to 
bring results not foreseen. Trade and com- 
merce with the Great Republic of the North 
were now practically free. The California 
cattle raisers had a steady market for their 
hides and tallow. Restless Americans came 
in from the north and east, and found that 
the country was admirably adapted to farm- 
ing and fruit raising. An American consul 
was appointed to reside at Monterey. Amer- 
icans began also to keep stores and sell 
supplies not alone of necessaries but luxuries 
as well. Americans married Mexican women 
and became extensive rancheros. It was not 
long before American influence was felt in 
business, society and politics. One of our 



68 



ROUBIDOUX'S RANCH. 



principal exports has been the Declaration of 
Independence. These branches from the 
parent stem never forgot their native country 
and its institutions, and longed for the time 
when California should become a part of the 
United States. 

In addition to American inliuence, Great 
Britain and Russia were interested in the 
future of California. Explorers from the 
latter country had gradually crept down the 
coast from Bering Strait to San Diego Bay- 
The English government kept a sharp eye 
on California with a view of annexing it at 
the first convenient opportunity. Anarchs- 
prevailed in Mexico; revolution succeeded 
revolution and government succeeded gov- 
ernment as fast as one set of demagogues 
could temporarily overpower another. In 
such a state of affairs California could claim 
scant attention and only nominal protection 




FvOUBIDOrX S RANCH. 



69 



from any one momentarily in authority at 
the City of Mexico. A few hundred Amer- 
icans had succeeded in freeing Texas and 
setting up an independent republic which 
had been recognized by the United States, 
France and England. An American was 
President of Texas and it was for all practical 
purposes a part of the United States. The 
question of the annexation of Texas began to 
agitate the country. It was part of the 
scheme of the Southern slaveholders, who 
had incited and supported the Texan revolu- 
tion, to make at least four slave states out of 
Texas, thus giving them additional power in 
Congress. 

It may be supposed that the example of 
Texas was not lost on the Americans in 
California. They were, however, too few in 
number to attempt a rebellion. Their hopes 
rested on the general belief that foreign 



'0 



ROUBIDOUX'S RANCH 



governmente would soon parcel out Mexico 
among themselves and California would fall 
to the share of the United States. Our 
country had successful!}^ extended its boun- 
daries to the Pacific by the discovery of 
Captain Grey of the Columbia River in 1792> 
the Louisiana Purchase, the expedition of 
Lewis and Clark, and the founding of Astoria. 
A wedge was thus interposed between Canada 
and California, but England did not alto- 
gether give up hopes of one day possessing 
the state. The treaty of Ghent, which ended 
the war of 1812, left the boundaries of both 
contending countries the same as before. 
These boundaries were not well defined and 
almost led to another war. At length the 
celebrated Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 
1842 and the Treaty of 1846 were negotiated, 
making the boundary of the United States as 
at present on the north. 




ROUBIDOUX'S RA^CH 



1 



Even after that, when it seemed as if Eng- 
land were barred from acquiring any more 
territory on the Pacific Coast, the American 
Consul at Monterey informed our government 
of his belief that England contemplated 
taking possession of California. In return 
he received instructions to hoist the Ameri- 
can flag and proclaim an American protecto- 
rate whenever the movements of English 
naval vessels warranted such action. Our 
government, then in the hands of the South- 
ern politicians, had determined that if Cali- 
fornia were stolen it should be by nobody but 
themselves and to make more slave states. 

At length it became assured that California 
would soon become an American possession. 
The Mexican governor, Don Pio Pico, the 
last of the Mexican governors, was as well in- 
formed of this fact as any one. He proceeded 
at once to take advantage of the situation 



72 



ROUBIDOUX S RAIs^CH. 



and his official position to assure the future 
of himself and friends under American domi- 
nation. They completed the secularization 
of the mission lands, and immense tracts of 
the finest lands in California went to those 
who "stood in" with His Excellency. Of 
course the Catholic church regarded this as 
nothing but robbery; perhaps it was. But 
the Governors of California were certainly in- 
vested with the power to make grants of the 
public lands to private citizens. There was 
no question but that the Republic of Mexico 
had succeeded to all rights regarding lands 
that were formerly enjoyed by the King of 
Spain. Theoretically, Mexico being conquered 
country, everything belonged to the king, 
and this theory was carried into ruthless 
practice by the conquerers. The lands were 
the king's and the native inhabitants, as well. 
A serfdom was established beside which the 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



old Middle Age serfdom was liberty itself. 
It is true that the Emperor Charles V. refused 
to ratify the serfdom established in Mexico, 
but means Avere found to evade his decree. 
It was to ameliorate the condition of the 
American Indian serfs that Las Casas, after- 
wards Bishop of Chiapa, implored the Em- 
peror to consent to the importation of African 
slaves into the Spanish-American colonies. 
The Emperor gave his consent, issued his de- 
cree and the result was the enslavement of 
another race without in the least helping the 
condition of the Indian. 

Governor Pico did a thriving real estate 
business during the last few years of his rule, 
knowing full well that the chances for his 
acts to be confirmed by a future American 
government were very good. It is a fact today 
that almost every city or prosperous settle- 
ment in California but three is situated on 



74 



ROUBIDOUX'S RANCH. 



lands formerly granted to the church or to 
private citizens of Mexico. Thrifty Ameri- 
cans were not slow to avail themselves of the 
liberality of a governor who was willing to 
give a principality for a mere song. Thou- 
sands of acres passed into the hands of Ameri- 
cans under a shadowy title. In after years 
the boundaries of these grants became sin- 
gularly uncertain and in the hands of their 
shrewd owners the most liberal interpretation 
was given to the language of the title deeds. 
The event for which well informed Mexi- 
cans and Americans had looked forward to 
for years was confirmed on February 2, 1848, 
when California was ceded to the United 
States by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. 
The United States in taking over the con- 
quered territory bound itself to maintain all 
the rights of its citizens; all the inhabitants 
at once became citizens of the United States; 




ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



75 



property rights were to be respected, but the 
owners of lands might be called upon to 
prove their titles in United States courts, 
when, if found satisfactory, a patent would 
be given by the President. 

In pursuance of the above policy. Congress 
passed on March 3, 1851, a law called "An 
Act to ascertain and settle the private land 
claims in the State of California." Commis- 
sioners were appointed and all their proceed- 
ings resembled any ordinary court. There is 
no doubt but that gross fraud characterized 
the proceedings in many cases settled by this 
land court; it is shameful to confess and 
painful to record that Americans were found 
in the forefront of it all, where it was neces- 
sary to get title to lands. Sharpers would 
buy up for a few dollars the slender claims 
of some Mexican grantee and then get these 
claims confirmed in the land court. Thou- 



76 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



sands of acres of the best lands in California 
were thus stolen from the public domain. 
The same things occurred in Arizona and 
New Mexico. 

The art of irrigation was practiced of neces- 
sity by the native inhabitants of old Mexico, 
and the Spanish conquerors were used to the 
system in Old Spain. Southern California 
would be a desert to day were it not for irri- 
gation. All the local laws and customs pre- 
vailing in 1848 in regard to the use of water 
for irrigation were of course confirmed by the 
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The owner 
of a large land grant very naturally picked 
out his land so as to control as large an 
amount of running water as possible. In this 
way nearly all the available water for irriga- 
tion became attached to the various grants. 
The owners did not especially need the water 
for irrigation but they did need it for their 



ROUBIDOUX S RAiS:CH. 



77 



stock. These rights and claims to lands and 
water became a veritable Pandora's box of 
evils for subsequent American settlers, lead- 
ing to almost endless law suits and tragedies 
where good American rifles took the places 
of judges and juries. 

After the American occupation, matters 
were still further complicated by endeavors 
to extend the English common law of 
riparian rights to California. This law in 
England compelled the user of water from 
a stream to turn back into the natural chan- 
nel the water which he had used to turn his 
mill wheel. Such a law is an absurdity in 
an irrigated country. The user of water for 
irrigation cannot turn back into the channel 
the same amount which he has diverted. 
The settlement of these vexatious questions 
occupied years of time and cost thousands of 
dollars. 



ROUBIDOUX'S RANCH. 



The commonest system in the use by sev- 
eral parties of water from the same stream 
was by the hour. That is, each irrigator had 
the right to use the entire flow of the stream 
a certain number of hours at stated periods. 
Water had a salable value by the hour. A 
more satisfactory solution came from the 
miners of the north and was generally 
adopted. After the placer mines of California 
were discovered and began to be worked, the 
miners, generally Americans, made local laws 
of their own and used, bought and sold water 
by the inch under a certain pressure. A mi- 
ner's inch of water was defined to be the 
amount of water which would pass through a 
hole one inch square with the water standing 
four inches above the center of the hole on 
the upper side. This was known as the 
"Smartsville inch," because it had first been 
used by miners at Smartsville in Yuba Coun- 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



79 



ty. For exactness this proved too crude and 
engineers at the present day measure water 
by the cubic foot of flow per second. 

Gradually the legislature and courts 
evolved a system of water laws suited to an 
irrigated country and in the course of time 
the necessary proceedings to acquire and hold 
property in water became defined with as 
much exactness as the laws concerning own- 
ership in any other species of property. Wa- 
ter could be appropriated, filing made, title 
acquired, bought and transferred the same as 
land. All unoccupied lands became the pro- 
perty of the Federal Government, as well as 
the navigable streams; but those streams 
which were not navigable were subject to 
state laws, or local laws and customs, and the 
United States government did not interfere. 



CHAPTER VI. 

LOUIS ROUBIDOUX. 

In 1844 Bandini sold for about twenty-five 
cents an acre a part of the Jurupa Rancho to 
Benjamin D. Wilson, a native of Tennessee, 
who had recently come into California with 
a party from New Mexico. He had made his 
first visit to the coast three years previously. 
He settled down as a stock raiser and married 
Ramona, the daughter of Bernardo Yorba, 
his nearest neighbor ten miles to the west- 
ward. Wilson's residence here seems to have 
been about three years, and he was the first 
American who made a home in this vicinity. 
He had hunted and trapped in the Rocky 
Mountains, was a famous Indian fighter and 
bear hunter, a man of unblemished reputa- 
tion, and in after years served creditably in 
the State Senate. He died in Los Angeles in 
1878. 





LOUIS ROUBIDOUX 



ROUBIDOUX'S RANCH 



81 



Bandini and Wilson sold their interests in 
the Jurupa to Johnson and Williams of Chino 
and in 1847 they transferred a portion of it 
to Louis Roubidoux, a Frenchman of consid- 
rable property who had also come from New 
Mexico. He was a native of St. Louis, the 
son of one of the pioneer merchants of that 
city. The family was prominent in the early 
history of Missouri and one of the brothers, 
Joseph, was founder of the city of St. Joseph. 
Louis went to New Mexico in the '30's, where 
he did well in hunting and trapping. He 
married a native of New Mexico and came to 
California in 1844 with a party of New Mexi- 
cans. After purchasing the Jurupa Rancho 
he became one of the largest and most pro- 
gressive ranchers of the day. 

The first grist mill in this part of Southern 
California was built by him on his Jurupa 
Ranch and one of the stones is still preserved. 



82 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



That this mill did good service for the Ameri- 
cans in the Mexican war is attested by the 
historian of the Mormon Battalion, which 
helped to occupy Southern California. He 
says: "Up to February 19, 1847, our fare con- 
tinued to be about the same — fresh beef. On 
that date, however, Lieutenant Oman re- 
turned from Roubidoux's, whither he had 
been sent five days previously, with a quan- 
tity of unbolted flour and some beans — an 
agreeable change of diet." 

"Some beans!" truly "an agreeable change 
of diet." What could the explorer, the pros- 
pector, the miner and early settler have done 
without beans? The bean has been the com- 
panion and comfort of all who had anything 
to do with the settlement of Western America 
and it has penetrated to the wilds of Alaska. 
Could the subjugation of the Western World 
have been accomplished without corn, beans, 



]^^ 



^imQimQ'^- 






ROUBIDOUXS RANCH. 



83 



tobacco and alcohol? Corn saved the lives 
of the early settlers in both Massachusetts 
and Virginia; in the latter colony tobacco 
became the only currency; in the former rum 
was current. The early settlers soon discov- 
ered that corn could be converted into a bev- 
erage having a substantial alcoholic founda- 
tion; their enemies, the Indians, exhibited 
an incurable fondness for the drink. The 
white man was assisted in his warfare for 
civilization by whiskey, which probably 
killed ten times as many Indians as the rifle. 
Stephen C. Foster, the first mayor of Los 
Angeles, who was with this Battalion as in- 
terpreter, says of this same Roubidoux mill: 
"The commissary and myself were ordered to 
Los Angeles to try and get some flour. We 
found the town garrisoned by Fremont's Bat- 
talion, about four hundred strong. They, too 
had nothing but beef served out to them. 



84 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



Here we met Louis Roubidoux of the Jurupa 
Ranch who said he could spare us some two 
or three thousand pounds of wheat which we 
could grind at a little mill he had on 
the Santa Ana river. So, on our return, two 
wagons were sent to Jurupa and they brought 
seventeen hundred pounds of flour and two 
sacks of beans — a small supply for four hun- 
dred men. I then messed with one of the 
captains and all agreed that it was the sweet- 
est bread we ever tasted." Surely! 

Mr. Roubidoux sided enthusiastically with 
the Americans in the war, and was placed in 
jail awhile at Los Angeles for his sympathies. 
The accounts of the battle of San Pasqual 
say that Mr. Roubidoux was among the 
wounded in that engagement. 

One of Roubidoux's first industries was a 
Avinery and wine making, as was usual with 
all the missionaries and early settlers. One 



ROUBIDOUX'S RANCH. 



85 



of his retainers built a house at the north end 
of Mt, Roubidoux on the edge of the mesa. 
His name was Antonio Prieto; was the first 
white man to live on what is now the site of 
Riverside. 

Roubidoux was educated, spoke four lan- 
guages, was genial and kindly in disposition, 
honorable in his dealings. He served as a 
local judge and was a member of the first 
board of supervisors of San Bernardino 
County. He died in 1868. 

In order to protect the settlers of Jarupa 
and San Bernardino from the incursions of 
the Mojave and Piute Indians, Colonel A. J. 
Smith of the United States infantry was sent 
in 1847 to the Cajon Pass with forty dragoons. 
In April of the same year a part of the Mor- 
mon Battalion was sent to establish a post 
at Chino, westward of Jurupa. In 1852 a 
post was established on the Jurupa grant by 







86 



ROUBIDOXTX'S RA^'CH 



Captain Lovell and Colonel Smith. Both 
these officers were afterwards Major-Generals 
in the civil war, Lovell a Confederate and 
Smith on the Union side, and they were op- 
posed to each other in Louisiana. A small 
body of troops was kept at Jurupa for two 
years, when they were withdrawn in 1854. 

ASSESSMENT OF LOUIS ROUBIDOUX FOR 1854. 

FROM THE OLD RECORDS OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY. 

Jurupa Rancho, supposed to be 3000 

acres of land at $1.25 per acre $3750.00 

San Timoteo Rancho, supposed to be 

640 acres of land at $1.25 800.00 

PERSONAL PROPERTY. 

10 gentle work horses, Cal. $30 each 300.00 

50 mares, wild, Cal. $20 1000.00 

20 milk cows and calves, $25 500.00 

135 cows and calves, wild 2700.00 

50 beef cattle at $20 each 1000.00 

200 young cattle, $20 each 1600.00 

1200 sheep at $2.50 each 3000.00 

Houses and improvements 1500.00 

1 wagon and harness, old 50.00 

Lyman, Rich & Hopkins note 3000.00 

Small notes amounting to 1000.00 

20,000.00 





ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



87 



Lyman and Rich, mentioned above, were 
the Mormon Bishops who bought the San 
Bernardino Rancho in 1851 from the Lugos 
and Sepulveda. 

The "bench lands" of the Jurupa where 
Riverside is now, were not assessed, as they 
were classed as "worthless." 

The land now occupied by Riverside does 
not seem to have been a cattle range, at least 
not extensively. After Mr. Roubidoux's time, 
there were a great many thousand head of 
sheep pastured on lands now covered with 
orange groves. 

It is well and just, at this point, to call at- 
tention to the wise policy pursued by Louis 
Roubidoux with his grant. Although one of 
richest men in his vicinity, he seemed to re- 
cognize the evils of large land holdings. Ex- 
tensive ownership of lands by a few persons 
has been the curse of all ages and a blight on 



^^^^^^i^ 




88 



ROUBIDOUX S RAJICH. 



all countries where permitted. William H, 
Mills, Land Commissioner of the Pacific Rail- 
roads, wrote thus in 1905: "If, when Cali- 
fornia was admitted to the Union, no Spanish 
grants had existed, and the homestead policy 
of the government had been in force and had 
been honestly and faithfully administered, 
the industrial history of the state would have 
been entirely different. It is even more than 
probable that the population would have 
been at least one million greater than at the 
present time." 

If those cantankerous old Pilgrim Fathers 
had only landed at San Diego! 

If not the first, Roubidoux was at least 
among the first in California to subdivide 
the large tract of land bought by him and 
invite small farmers to buy on liberal terms. 
The opposite course held back the settlement 
of California for years, even after American 




ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



89 



annexation. No matter what motives may 
have actuated Roubidoux, the plan he began 
was kept up and finally led to the breaking 
up of the large grants into small farms. The 
renter or vassal has not that interest in his 
country that has the man who owns the land 
upon which is his home. A monument 
should be erected to Louis Roubidoux, the 
California boomer who set the fashion to 
"subdivide." 



CHAPTER yil, 

"a colony for CALIFORNIA." 

Judge J. W. North, the inventor of the 
Iliverside Colon}^ was president of the 
(•or])oration from 1870 until 1875, when the 
hinds, water, etc., of the colony were sold to 
the Riverside Land and Irrigating Company. 

The Judge was a real pioneer, and was one 
of the first to establish his residence upon the 
then barren plains of the valley. As president 
and superintendent he surveyed the lands, 
laid out the town, projected and built the 
irrigation system. 

Judge North was born in 8and Lake, 
Renselaer County, New York, January 4, 
1815 ; was educated at the Wesley an Univer- 
sity at Middletown, Connecticut, graduating 
in 1841 with high honor. Li his young man- 
hood, and before entering the university, 
eTudge North ardently espoused and advo- 
cated the anti-slaverv or abolition doctrine. 



ROUBIDOUXS RANCH. 



91 



which was contrary to the sentiments of his 
parents and his church. While in college 
his earnest advocacy of the doctrines 
attracted the attention of the Connecticut 
State Anti-Slavery Society, and after his 
graduation he was employed by them for 
more than two years as a lecturer in that 
state. 

In 1843 he abandoned the lecture field 
and located in New York city, and there en- 
tered upon law studies in the office of John 
Jay, and later continued his studies in the 
office of Benedict & Boardman. Failing 
health compelled a suspension of his study, 
and he joined his father, who had established 
his residence in Preble, Cortland Countv, 
New York, and upon recovering his health 
entered the law office of Forbes & Sheldon, 
of Syracuse. Completing his studies he w^as 
admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of 
the State, and there formed a partnership 
with Hon. Israel S. Spencer of that city. 
Judge North conducted a successful practice 



92 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



of liis i^rofession in Syracuse until 1849; his 
health then failing, he moved to Minnesota 
and located at the villao:e of St. Anthony 
(now the city of Mimieapolis ) , esta Wishing 
himself as an attorney at law, and from the 
ver}^ first took a leadmg and prominent part 
in the political and legislatiye affairs of the 
Territory. In 1850 he was elected to the 
Territorial Legislature, and during the 
session introduced and successfully manao;ea 
the bill founding the Minnesota University. 
Six years afterwards he located at Faribault, 
that State, purchasing an interest in the 
townsite and conducting the business affairs 
of the projectors and proprietors of the ^\\x. 

At length he sold out his interests there 
and established the town of Northf ield, build- 
ing at that place saw and flour mills, dwelling 
house, etc. In 1857 he was elected president 
of the Minneapolis & Cedar Valley Eailroad 
Company, a company of which he was one 
of the original incorporators. Twenty miles 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



98 



of the road was graded and put in operation 
that year under his management. 

In 1860 he was chosen chairman of the 
Minnesota delegation to the Eepublican 
National Convention at Chicago that nomin- 
ated Abraham Lincoln for President, and 
was a member of the committee that con- 
veyed to Mr. Lincoln the notice of his nom- 
ination. He became personally acquainted 
with Mr. Lincoln and also Vice-President 
ILimlin, and was present at their inaugura- 
tion in 1861. May 11, 1861, President Lm- 
coln appointed Judge North United States 
Surveyor-General of the Territory of 
Nevada. He then formed a law partnership 
with James F. Lewis (afterward Chief 
Justice of the Supreme Court of Nevada) 
and conducted a very successful practice 
until appointed by President Lincoln Judg-e 
of one of the Territorial districts and the 
Supreme Court of Nevada. 

His Territorial District embraced Virginia 
City, where all the richest and most valuable 




94 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



mines were in litigation. Tlie Judge liekl 
liis judicial position until the organization of 
the Nevada State Government, retiring from 
office upon the establishment of the Nevada 
State courts. During his term on the bench 
he was elected a member of the first Consti- 
tutional Convention of Nevada, and upon 
the organization of the convention was elect- 
ed as its president, and presided over its 
deliberations. 

In the autumn of 1865 Judge North 
closed his business in Nevada and returned 
east, and the next year (1866) settled in 
Knoxville. Tennessee, where he engaged in 
the iron business, establishing foundries, 
machine shops, etc. lie remained there until 
the spring of 1870, laboring under many 
disadvantages in conducting his business, for 
men of his prominent view^s were not popular 
in the South. Finally he conceived the idea 
of establishing a model colony in Southern 
California, and in March of that year issued 
his first circular from Ivnoxville, and in that 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



95 



spring he sold off his property and came to 
California. After spending months in 
examining the different localities, and meet- 
ing obstacles that would have damited almost 
any other man, he finally selected the lands 
of the present Eiverside colony and city. 

After leaving Eiverside, he acquired prop- 
erty interests in Fresno, and became a resi- 
dent of that place. In early life and young 
manhood he was deeply religious and an 
earnest supporter of the Methodist Church, 
in which his father was a minister. Doubting 
the infallibilit}^ as a moral teacher, of the 
church which supported human slavery in 
America, he left it; and, always having been 
a deep thinker on religious and ethical sub- 
jects, he found that he disagreed moi-e and 
more with the beliefs of the Orthodox 
Christians, until he has finally come to 
think the agnosticism of Spencer and Tyn- 
dall as the more reasonable ground. 

The following are copies of the first cir- 
culars issued b}^ Judge ^orth: 



96 ROUBIDOUX'S RA:\X'H, 

"A COLONY FOR CALIFOENIA." 

The imdcrsigned, in association with per- 
sonal friends and correspondents in the 
North and West, as well as with a consider- 
able number of good people in different 
states of the South, is now engaged in organ- 
izing a Colony for settlement in Southern 
California, on or near the line of the South- 
ern Pacific Railw^ay. 

Appreciating the advantages of associated 
settlement, we aim to secure at least 100 
good families, who can invest $1000 each, 
in the purchase of land; while at the same 
time we earnestly invite all good, industrious 
families to join us, who can, by investing a 
smaller amount, contribute in any degree to 
the general prosperity. We do not expect 
to buy as much land for the same money, in 
Southern California, as we could obtain in 
the remote parts of Colorado or Wj^oming; 
but we expect it w^ill be worth more, in pro- 
])ortion to cost, than any other land we 




J. W. NORTH 



ROUBIDOUX'S RANCH. 



97 



could purchase in the United States. It will 
cost something more to get to California than 
it would to reach the States this side of the 
mountains; but we are very confident that 
the superior advantages of soil and climate 
will compensate us many times over for this 
increased expense. 

Experience in the West has demonstrated 
that $'100, invested in a colony, is worth 
$1000 invested in an isolated locality. 

We wish to form a colony of intelligent, 
industrious and enterprising people, so that 
each one's industr}^ will help to promote his 
neighbor's interest, as well as his own. It is 
desirable, if possible, that everyone shall be 
consulted in regard to location and purchase ; 
but since those who will compose the colony 
are now scattered from Maine to Texas, and 
from Georgia to Minnesota and Nevada, this 
seems next to impossible. For this reason it 
is proposed that some men of large means, 
who are interested in the enterprise, shall, in 
connection with as many as can conveniently 



98 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



act with them, select and purchase land suf- 
ficient for a colony of 10,000 persons. Let 
this he subdivided and sold to the subscribers 
at the lowest figure practicable, after paying 
the expenses of purchase and subdivision. 
We hope in this way to arrange it so that 
each individual shall receive his title when 
he pays his mone^^ and commences in good 
faith to improve his property. It is also pro- 
posed to lay out a to^n in a convenient 
locality, so that as mau}^ of the subscribers 
can reside in the town and enjo}^ all the 
advantages which a first-class town affords. 
We expect to have schools, churches, public 
librar}^, reading-room, etc., at a very early 
day, and we invite such people to join our 
colony as will esteem it a privilege to build 
them. 

Many who wish to join the colony have 
not the money m hand to defray traveling 
expenses, and pay the full price for their 
land at once. We hope to make arrangements 
for the accommodation of all such, so that 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



99 



the}' can pa}^ a part down, and the balance 
in yearly installments with interest. Each 
subscriber will be allow^ed to purchase 160 
acres of fanning land and two to\Mi lots — 
or a less amount if desired. It is expected 
that every subscriber will reside upon and 
improve his property, within one year of the 
time of subscribing, otherwise he will lose 
his rights as a member of the colony. 

All persons of good character, signifying 
in writino- their wish to become members of 
the colony, and sending ten dollars as a 
location fee, will be regarded as subscribers. 
Those writino- for information who are not 
subscribers, will be expected to enclose one 
dollar toward defraying the expenses of cir- 
cidars and correspondence. 

Those who wish to join the colony from 
Xew England are requested to write and 
send their names to the Eev. S. W. Bush, 
Bureau of Emigration, 26 Chauncey Street, 
Boston. 

Those in the Middle and Southern States, 



100 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



are requested to write me at Dewitt, Onan- 
daga Coimty, Xew York. 

Those in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and 
Wisconsin, will please write, Dr. J. P. 
Greves, Marshall, Mich. 

Those who wish to join the colony from 
Minnesota and Iowa, are requested to write 
me at Dewitt, Onandaga Comity, New 
York, or to David H. Frost, Esq., Belle 
Plaiiie, Iowa. We hope to make up a party 
of suhscrihers to visit California in May next, 
and determine on a location. It is desirable 
that each of the subscribers m the above 
localities should be represented in that party. 
We wish to secure earty and prompt action, 
with as little machiner}^ and routine as possi- 
ble. We wish to secure all the advantages 
of a good colon}^, with as few preliminary 
conditions, and restrictions, as is consistent 
with the best success. We invite the earnest 
co-operation of all good people, who wish 
for homes in that land that the earlv Mis- 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



101 



sionaries thought "fit for the abode of 
Angels." 

All who wish to join us are requested to 
send in their names as early as possible, and 
before the first of July next. Further 
arrangements will be made as soon as we can 
confer with subscribers. 

J. W. NORTH. 
Knoxville, Tenn., March 17, 1870. 



SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA COLONY, 

This colony, of which some notice was 
given by circulars in March last, is finally 
located and organized. After several months 
of examination, in company with gentlemen 
from New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, 
Iowa, and Tennessee, a selection has been 
made, about fifty miles from Los Angeles, 
w^hich combines the following advantages, 
viz. : A plenty of good land, an abundance 
of pure, running water, a delightfully genial 
and healthful climate, a soil adapted to the 
production of all grains and vegetables, as 



302 



ROUBIDOUX'S RANCH. 



well as the common and semi-tropical fruits. 

In addition to this, we have, on the prop- 
ert}^ purchased, excellent material for brick, 
and a small mountain of marble, that makes 
the best of lime, and fine material for build- 
ing'. A large amomit of timber, suitable for 
fencing and fuel, is growing- on the property^ 
and pine lund^er can be purchased for twen- 
ty-five dollars per thousand. This location 
has been chosen by Mr. Prevost (the pioneer 
silk culturist of California) , before his death, 
as the best locality in the state for silk cul- 
ture. The company is incorporated under 
the laws of California, and named "The 
Southern California Colony Association." 

This location is twelve miles toward the 
coast, from San Bernardino ; is near the pro- 
])osed line of railroad now being surveyed 
between the coast and San Bernardino. A 
telegraph line is expected to be constructed 
through the property the nresent season. Our 
postoffice address, for the present, is San 
Bernardino. 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



103 



A town site is now being surveyed. A 
few choice lots will be given to those who 
build and establish business on them before 
the first of Januarj^ next. Other lots will be 
sold from twenty-five to two hundred dol- 
lars each, according to location and value. 
Lands in lots of from ten to twent}^ acres, 
adjoining the town, will be sold, for the 
present, at twenty dollars per acre ; and other 
lands at two and a half to five, ten and fif- 
teen dollars per acre, according to location. 

This hastih^ prepared circular is issued to 
give necessary information to many friends 
who are waiting for it. We hope to issue 
a more complete one after a few months, 
J. W. XOETH, 
President and General Agent. 

San Francisco, Cal, Oct. 19, 1870. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE FIRST AMERICANS ARRIVE AT RIVERSIDE. 

Some time during the years succeeding 
the Civil War, a Frenchman named Louis 
Prevost came to Los Angeles. He was 
thoroughly posted on silk culture, and the 
conditions of climate prevailing in California 
caused him to believe that silk could be 
successfully produced. He succeeded in 
getting a number of men interested in his 
views, among whom was Thomas W. Cover, 
who had lately come into California from 
Montana. Cover was another of the early 
boomers, and had become acquainted with 
J. H. Stewart, of San Bernardino. The latter 
of course was anxious for the silk colony to 
become located in his county, where he had 
extensive land and financial interests. Mr. 
Stewart directed Cover's attention to that 




DR. J. P. GREVES 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



105 



part of the Jurupa ranch lying on the 
"bench" east of the river and about ten 
miles from San Bernardino, as being a good 
location for the colony. Prevost inspected 
the ground, approved it, and a corporation 
known as the "Silk Center Association" was 
formed in 1869. A purchase was made from 
the Roubidoux estate and Abel Stearns of 
substantially all the remaining unsold lands 
of the Jurupa grant. Before his death, Mr. 
Roubidoux had sold about one thousand 
acres of the bottom lands on the west side of 
the river to men who understood farming as 
practiced at that time. Many of these pur- 
chasers were Americans, although quite a 
flourishing settlement of Mexicans was 
situated at the upper end of the grant and 
was known as "Agua Mansa" — gentle water. 
When everything seemed certain for the 
establishment of a successful colony of 



106 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



French silk culturists, Mr, Prevost died. As 
Dobody connected with the project beside 
himself knew anything about the silk busi- 
ness, his death caused it to be abandoned 
before an3^thing was done. 

Very shortly afterward a party of Eastern 
men visited Los Angeles for the purpose of 
selecting lands to be cut up into small hold- 
ings and sold to fruit raisers. These men 
represented quite a number of others whose 
attention had been attracted to California 
and especially Southern California by ac- 
counts of its climate, soils and adaptability 
to successful and profitable fruit raising. 
Just &t this time the first overland railroad 
was completed, and the days of travel to Cali- 
fornia around the '*Horn," Panama, or across 
the plains per ox team were over. There 
was a project also for the building of a South- 
ern overland railroad which was to have a 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



,107 



terminus at San Diego. The latter road 
seemed sure to be built, as at the back of it 
was Colonel Thomas A. Scott, famous as the 
head of the great Pennsylvania System and 
Assistant Secretary of War. Soott had "made 
good," and the building of his Texas-Pacific 
road, as it was called, was considered as sure 
anything could be. It was ten weary j^ears, 
however, before a Southern overland railroad 
was completed and then not by Scott, who 
died in the meantime before his great scheme 
attained anything like completion. 

The eastern men who were looking around 
for a suitable place to locate a colony of fruit 
raisers went to a number of locations, and 
it is a singular fact worthy to record that ev- 
ery one of them has since become the site of 
a prosperous city. They were on the point 
of leaving Los Angeles when T. W. Cover 
met them. They listened to his representa- 



108 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



tions about the Jurupa and finally consented 
to look at it at his expense. The result of 
their trip was to cancel all other propositions 
which they had seen and to purchase the Ju- 
rupa lands for their purpose. This was May 
in the year 1870, and they returned east with 
the plan of coming back later in the year to 
make settlement. 

To take over and handle the property of 
the Silk Center Association it became neces- 
sary to form a new corporation which was 
named the "Southern California Colony As- 
sociation." The name "colony" was a mis- 
nomer, certainly as far as being "co-operative' 
was concerned. The Colony Association was 
formed to sell lands in small tracts to people 
who became the owners to do what they 
pleased with them. The association also 
handled and owned the water system, but no 
purchaser of lands thereby acquired any right 



EOUBIDOUXS RANCH. 



109 



to water. The idea was that after the asso- 
ciation had sold all its lands it would still 
own the water and do a profitable business 
selling it at rates to be fixed by itself. There 
was, however, a strong spirit of co-operation 
among the settlers, and we have seen it con- 
tinued down to the present time and crowned 
with the greatest success. 

At the head of this company as President 
was J. W. North, a good writer and speaker, 
a man of culture, and every member of his 
numerous family shared his excellent quali- 
ties. His son John practised law in Riverside 
for many years, and his untimel}^ death a few 
years ago in middle life was regarded as a lo- 
cal calamity. 

The secretary of the association was James 
P. Greves, an ex- physician, who had been 
connected with the Freedmen's Bureau dur- 
ing the civil war. He had gone to Nevada 



110 



ROUBIDOllX S RAIS^CH. 



and tliere become intimately acquainted with 
Judge North. In 1870 he was located in 
Knoxville. K. D. Shugart, also a physician 
from Iowa, was an officer, as was also another 
doctor, Sanford Eastman of Buffalo, New 
York. The latter died an 1874, and was al- 
ways spoken of in the highest terms by those 
who knew him. Others who were connected 
with the new venture were T. W. Cover, a 
miner; J. H. Stewart, capitalist; M,W. Childs, 
a merchant of Los Angeles; Henry Hamilton, 
an editor; A.J. and D.O.Twogood, merchants 
from Iowa; T. J. Wood, carpenter; W. J. Lin- 
ville, lumberman; Dudley Pine, stockman; 
Captain John Brodhurst, a retired sea cap- 
tain, an extensive traveler and a good writer. 
Onl}^ one was a practical horticulturist, as far 
as knowledge of California horticulture was 
concerned. This one exception was Henry 
Hamilton, editor of the Los Angeles Star. 




ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



Ill 



He established a weekly newspaper in San 
Bernardino in 1867, and remained there two 
years. He never lived at Riverside but retired 
to his ranch at San Gabriel where he died at 
an advanced age. The artof citrus fruit raising 
was in its infancy on this coast, and Riverside 
became a large "experiment station," to 
which all subsequent settlers went and looked 
to for knowledge. 

When this little group representing a new 
race, a new religion and a new civilization, 
stood on the eastern slope of Mt. Roubidoux 
on September 19, 1870, old California com- 
menced a definite and rapid decay. No robed 
priest stood by a wooden cross; no helmed 
and plumed Knights of the Middle Age stood 
guard with sword and buckler to claim the 
land for the king. No litany was chanted, 
and the white-bearded Judge did not sing 
"Te Deum Laudamus." There were those 



112 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



among them who were to live long enough 
to see a prosperous city grow up on the plain 
at their feet, and more people having homes 
in that valley than there were in all Califor- 
nia after sixty years of priestly rule. 

While residents of Nevada, Judge North 
and Dr. Greves became acquainted with 
Charles N. Felton, then interested in mining 
and a resident of San Francisco. Means to 
put their venture on a good financial footing 
were lacking; it is very doubtful if even the 
richest of them could have commanded as 
much as $10,000 in cash. Six years later 
one of them made the statement that he 
had invested all his means in his Riverside 
fruit ranch and it amounted to $7000. The 
exception was J. H. Stewart, of San Bernar- 
dino, who was a wealthy man for that day, 
but not disposed to invest much in the 
enterprise. He, how^ever, did furnish enough 



ROUBIDOUX'S RANCH. 



113 



to start the necessary surveys for a canal and 
Mr. Felton subsequently came to the rescue. 
Mr. Stewart's connection with the project 
was not of long duration. A canal was suc- 
cessfully built under the superintendence of 
T. W. Cover and water brought to the 
present site of Riverside in June, 1871. The 
chief engineer, John Goldsworthy, told Judge 
North that the time would come, perhaps not 
for twenty years, when every mile of the ca- 
nal would have to be cemented. Thus early 
did the ''conservation" problem force itself 
to the front. The cost of the canal was 
$40,000, twice as much as first estimated. 

Goldsworthy's prediction was based on the 
fact that the main canal ran for several miles 
around a mountain and across broken coun- 
try before its waters could be used on the 
lands; the canal had nothing but dirt banks 
and the industrious gopher became at once 



114 



ROUBIDOUX'S RANCH 



the enemy of the young irrigating system; 
the water was carried across little valleys by 
means of wooden "flumes; occasionally a 
bank of the canal would become so thor- 
oughly saturated, or a flume become too weak 
to support the weight, that a long gap would 
be made in a few minutes which might take 
days or weeks to repair. The ^vhole colony 
depended upon the canal for water for both 
domestic use and irrigation, and a break of 
any sort meant great loss and inconvenience 
to everybody concerned. This discouraging 
state of affairs continued for ten years or 
more. 

The writer has had more than once to get 
out with a wagon or a cart and a barrel to 
haul water for house use a distance of two 
miles from Spring Brook, at the foot of Mt. 
Roubidoux. Neighbors were doing the same 
thing, except those who were fortunate 




ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



115 



enough to have a cistern and had it filled. 
The owner of a cistern was looked upon by 
the less fortunate as a sort of aristocrat. 
Speaking of hauling water, this system pre- 
vailed from September, 1870, to June, 1871, 
during the period when the canal was build- 
ing. It would seem that a water supply 
drawn through an open ditch six miles, which 
was a regular bathing place for children and 
animals, reeking with decaying vegetation 
and almost boiling under a tropical sun, 
should have killed us all off; but "germs" 
had not yet been invented and w^e were in 
blissful ignorance of the fact that every 
mouthful of water we drank contained mi- 
crobes enough to kill a regiment. If there 
was a case of typhoid fever in those years, 
it escaped record. 

The original main canal was about eight 
feet wide at the top, six feet on the bottom, 



116 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



and was calculated to carr}^ 2000 inches of 
water. This was presumed to be sufficient 
to irrigate 10,000 acres. In some places the 
canal was twelve feet on top, eight feet on 
the bottom and three feet deep. Water was 
sold by the inch entirely, the "hour" method 
being discarded. Charges were based on a 
twenty-four hour continuous run. The cal- 
culations at that time enabled the company 
to believe that water could be sold at a profit 
for two and a half cents an inch. This was 
soon found to be not enough to pay the ex- 
penses of the distributing system. 

The Mexican system of irrigation was fol- 
lowed; indeed, there was nothing else to go 
by. Lateral ditches were taken at intervals 
from the main canal, the flow into them be- 
ing controlled by a wooden gate. The cus- 
tomer for water had it measured out to him 
by another wooden gate at the highest corner 



ROUBIDOUXS RANCH. 



117 



of his land. Very naturally, he frequently 
complained that he was not getting what he 
paid for. The distributing system of main 
main canal and laterals was constantly clog- 
ged with weeds and grass. The Indians were 
hired by the company to keep the ditches 
clean, and to do this work they had to get 
into the main canal with scythes. They 
sometimes wore overalls at this work, but 
more frequently did not, and the spectacle of 
a gang of Indians, naked except for a shirt, 
wading in the main canal cutting out grass 
and weeds, was too common to excite any 
notice, even from people who drank the 
water. 

The open system of canals and ditches 
proved an extremely wasteful one. Seepage, 
leakage and evaporation were responsible 
for the loss of fully half the 2000 inches that 
were turned into the main canal. Indeed, 



118 



ROUBIBO'UX'S RANCH. 



owing to the drying up of the river in mid- 
summer, Judge North bought in 1874 a grist 
mill on the north bank of the Santa Ana 
about two miles obove the canal headings 
which mill carried with it the right to all the 
water of Warm Creek, the main tributary of 
the Santa Ana. 

As the owner of the mill was entitled to all 
the waters of the stream to turn his mill 
wheel, and there being no one below him to 
use the Avater thereafter, the Warm Creek 
waters became virtually all the hope of irri- 
gation for Riverside. Judge North's idea 
was that the original line of canal for four 
miles would have to be abandoned and Warm 
Creek taken across the river by a flume. This 
was done years later when his son John was 
superintendent of the canals after the irriga- 
tion system had been purchased by the land 
owners. 



ROUBIDOUX« RANCH. 



119 



At a meeting of the Southern California 
Colony Association in December, 1870, it was 
voted that the name of "Riverside" be be- 
bestowed on the proposed town instead of 
"''Jurupa." 

The first American family to settle at Riv- 
erside was that of T. J. Wood, and their 
house was on the block north of the present 
Santa Fe depot. The family occupied the 
house October 28, 1870, and an old account 
says of the event: "Mrs. Wood was the first 
white woman to reside in Riverside, and her 
advent was not allowed to pass without a fit- 
ting reception. Welcoming speeches were 
made and a cordial reception extended by 
the gentlemen present, among whom was 
the Rev. Mr. Higbie (partner of Engineer 
Golds worthy). He indulged in predictions 
of the glorious future that awaited the colo- 
ny, saying that 'within fifteen years the iron 



120 



ROUBIDOUX S RAJJCH. 



horse will be plowing through the valley and 
Riverside will be furnishing the eastern states 
with oranges/ " This prediction cut curiously 
close to the truth. 

The first white child born in Riverside was 
May Brodhurst, daughter of Captain John 
Brodhurst, and her birthday was December 
26, 1870. In honor of this event, the company 
made Mrs. Brodhurst a present of the town 
block now occupied by the Salt Lake freight 
house. The Brodhursts at that time lived in 
a house near the H. P. Kyes home. This was 
not on the original town site, but on govern- 
ment land a mile eastward. The first Ameri- 
can child born on the town site was a daugh- 
ter, to Adam R. Smith, born March 31, 1871. 

The first marriage was that of Lyman C. 
W&ite and Miss Lillian Shugart, April 5, 
1872, by Dr. Atherton. 

The first death was tliat of Miss Leila Shu- 
gart, sister of Mrs. Waite, which occurred on 
Februarv 29, 1872. 



CHAPTER IX. 

DISCOURAGEMENTS, FAILURES AND SUCCESSES. 

On looking over the orchards of River- 
side today from the summit of the little 
ridge upon which we have supposed Don 
Juan Bandini once climbed, and gratefully 
named Mt. Roubidoux, the writer can think 
of nothing but a vast battlefield from which 
the wreck and debris of defeat have long 
since been cleared away. Here on this ground 
were enacted the tragedies which have char- 
acterized all our frontier settlements; perhaps 
that knoll marks defeat; perhaps that little 
valley was the spot where the hosts of right 
met victory; and perhaps in that little grave- 
yard lie some of the heroes and heroines who 
have been forgotten. 

The crude, defective and uncertain irriga- 
tion system was not the only thing which 



122 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



the early settlers had to contend with. As 
we have seen, they were all "green" at the 
business. While it had been supposed that 
the location and soil were adapted to fruit 
raising, it had to be demonstrated; the orange 
was attracting considerable attention, and a 
fine seedling fruit was raised in the San Ga- 
briel country and at Old San Bernardino, 
but the "old-timers" were certain that the 
orange would not succeed on the Jurupa 
bench; the raisin business looked more 
promising, and the famous "Muscat of Alex- 
andria" had been brought to California and 
proved successful; figs looked promising also ; 
the English walnut, almond and olive, the 
peach, apricot and nectarine were the chief 
things that the young colony looked forward 
to for future income. Fortunately it was 
known that the apple, prune and cherry 
would not succeed, so no time was wasted on 








ROUBIDOUX S RAISCH. 



123 



them. Harder to bear than all were the con- 
stant jibes and jeers of the "old-timers", who 
came to the country ten years before, and 
indulged in all kinds of fun at the expense 
of the greenhorns that had the audacity to 
believe anything could be done with the 
barren soil of Jurupa. 

The animate forces of nature seemed 
leagued against them. The gopher was not 
only the worst enemy of the irrigating canals, 
but had a liking for tender root growth; the 
grasshoppers and rabbits issued from the hills 
in countless swarms to feed upon green 
growth; coyotes developed a taste for poultry 
and great enterprise in securing meals of 
young chicken "au naturel;" flies, fleas, ants, 
scorpions, centipedes, tarantulas and rattle- 
snakes added burdens and dangers to daily 
life; the first winter season introduced the 
"norther," a hot wind which swept down the 



124 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



Cajon Pass from the desert carrying clouds 
of discomforting dust and sand. 

The Indians were no loncrer to be feared 
except as undesirable neighbors with a pro- 
pensity for alcoholic drinks, and to possess 
live stock which belonged to others. In this 
latter they were joined by renegade white 
men, who hang on the fringe of civilization. 
Wherever there has been found one unselfish 
missionary ready to devote a life to convert- 
ing savages, there have usually been about 
one hundred men who were willing to supply 
the natives with whiskey and degrade their 
women. They were assisted in this latter b}^ 
the fact that the natives of California seemed 
to have only misty ideas of female virtue; 
and it was not long before a class of half- 
breeds was common who knew not their pa- 
rentage and were worse than either race from 
which they sprang. 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



125 



The nearest point from which a Riverside 
settler could obtain trees and vines was the 
San Gabriel country, fifty miles distant over 
a desert. They went to work at once and 
some trees were planted before the canal was 
completed. Dr. Shugart planted the first 
orange trees, seedlings of course, and kept 
them alive by hauling water at a cost of 
twenty-five cents per barrel. Some orange 
trees cost five dollars apiece. After the com- 
pletion of the canal, many thousands of trees 
were brought in, some of them from Northern 
California, and in spite of all drawbacks and 
discouragements, at the end of the second 
year a good showing was made. 

The nurserymen were not idle. George D. 
Carleton came from San Diego and started a 
nursery in partnership with Prior S. Russell, 
who was also well acquainted with what 
would succeed in California. The stock 




»s 



126 



ROUBIDOUX'S RA]S'CH 



raised by these two men and the knowledge 
which they freely gave were invaluable. Ly- 
man C. Waite, a young teacher and lawyer 
from Iowa, also turned his attention to hor- 
ticulture at Riverside, and by his keen insight 
soon made himself an authority, and gave 
the results of his work freely to all. 

With George D. Carleton for some time 
was a young man named Robert Preston 
Cundiff. He also thoroughly learned the 
nursery business and horticulture; afterwards 
his attention was turned to fruit pests. An- 
other young man, John A. Simms, came from 
Indiana and at once went to work for his 
uncle, P. S. Russell. He also soon mastered 
the details of California fruit farming and 
was the most successful disseminator of na- 
val orange buds in the settlement. A fine 
early apricot originated in the garden of T. 
J. Wood, known as "Wood's Early," was ta- 




ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



127 



ken in hand by Mr. Simms and buds sent 
broadcast. 

Pepper trees were planted for shade and 
ornament, and throve. The Australian eu- 
calyptus or '^blue gum," as it was generally 
called, grew rapidly and proved a good wind 
break for orchards when planted thickly. 
The Muscat grape seemed to be on its origin- 
al habitat and the dry, hot days converted it 
into a delicious raisin. The fig was success- 
ful, also the peach and apricot. Wine making 
was never undertaken, probably owing to the 
fact that the settlers were not wine users. 
Among other things experimented with Avas 
the poppy, and it is a fact that some opium 
was produced from poppies grown at River- 
side; Dr. Greves once told the writer that it 
was a fine article and met with a ready sale 
to the Chinese. Perhaps a prejudice discour- 
aged its extensive raising. Tobacco could be 



128 



EouBiDoux s ra:sch. 



raised^ but was not done on a commercial 
scale. Lemons and limes also grew, but the 
latter was abandoned. 

Very naturally, the early settlers com- 
rifenced to plant the things which promised 
the most speedy returns, and by the time 
they had something to sell an outlet was af- 
forded by the completion of the Southern 
Pacific railroad from Los Angeles to Colton. 
This gave Riverside a railroad station eight 
miles distant and was a matter of great re- 
joicing. The grading camps had been in 
plain sight on the desert northward across 
the river, and when the primitive "mixed" 
trains of that day began to make regular trips 
to Los Angeles, many who had not seen a 
train for years made the trip just for the no- 
velty of the thing. I went out from San 
Bernardino with a friend and when we came 
in sight of the construction train at Slover 




DR. K. D. SHUGART 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



129 



Mountain, we stood up and yelled until we 
were hoarse. We were in the brush on 
ground now covered by steel tracks. 

According to Judge North's original 
scheme, a town site was laid out one mile 
square with streets at right angles three hun- 
dred and thirty feet apart. The Philadelphia 
plan was followed. When that city was the 
capital of the United States, the Western 
members of Congress thought it the most 
beautiful city they had ever seen; in fact, it 
was the first city many of them had seen at 
all. The consequence was that William 
Penn's plan of a town was carried westward 
and came to Riverside, where the town plat 
resembled a checker-board, just as it did in 
hundreds of other Western towns. Inequali- 
ties of ground were not taken into considera- 
tion and streets ran straight up the side of a 
hill at Kansas City, San Francisco and Los 



130 



ROUBIDOUX'S RANCH. 



Angeles just as if the face of the country re- 
sembled the traditional pancake in flatness. 
A new townsite was, however, usually select- 
ed on level ground and Riverside was level. 
The pioneers were much assisted in their 
methods of town site platting by the system 
of government surveys, which adopted the 
"section" of a square mile as the unit. 

It was supposed that it would be necessary 
at Riverside to subdivide only a few town 
blocks into lots for business purposes. The 
block in the middle of the plat bounded by 
Main, Market, Seventh and Eighth streets, 
was reserved for a "public square," also com- 
mon to most Western towns, and named the 
"plaza," a word borrowed from the Mexicans. 
It will be noted that Penn's city was further 
imitated by numbering the streets running 
in one direction instead of giving them 
names. A few stores, a saloon or two, black- 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



131 



smith shops and the usual small business of 
a new town became grouped about the plaza, 
which remained innocent of trees or grass. 
The remainder of the town blocks became 
rapidly sold off and improved by people who 
believed that a comfortable living could be 
gained from two and a half acres. 

When Don Benito Wilson sold out his 
holdings at Jurupa, he and his grantee 
climbed one of the hills, and Wilson pointed 
out the "corners." On the east these were 
the mountains at Spanishtown and the Pa- 
chappa. This line was defined with exact- 
ness by Goldsworthy and Higbie, who were 
official surveyors of the United States. This 
eastern line of the Jurupa grant was also the 
eastern line of Riverside. Southward from 
the town about three miles was a tract of 
9000 acres which had somehow been over- 
looked by the Mexicans. This land had been 



332 



EOUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



entered and patented at a cost of $1.25 an 
acre by Benjamin Hartshorn, a sea captain 
who had been engaged in the early California 
trade. Of course this was known to all early- 
settlers as the "Hartshorn Tract," the owner 
of which was a matter-of-fact trader whose 
unsentimental nature had prevented him 
from naming his domain in honor of some 
saint. Between the Jurupa and Hartshorn's 
land was a strip of "government" land, a 
mile wide, which was speedily taken up by 
squatters, as it could be easily irrigated from 
the Riverside Canal. They had employed 
the government surveyors to set the corners, 
although their survey was not "official" be- 
cause the general land office had not author- 
ized it. The same thing was done to the 
eastward of Jurupa, and these government 
lands were also "squatted" upon very 
soon, although there seemed to be no immedi- 



ROUBIDOUX S EANCH. 



133 



ate prospect for their irrigation. The squat- 
ters were known as "dry ranchers," but in 
good seasons they raised crops of barley and 
wheat which were abundant and brought to 
them much ready money. Judge North him- 
self took a town block on the extreme east- 
ern line and became a squatter to the extent 
of claiming and partially improving eighty 
acres. E. G. Brown also located on govern- 
ment land, but was fortunate in having the 
main canal run across one of his corners, 
thus giving him a few acres which could be 
irrigated. T. W. Cover also became a squat- 
ter two miles south of town. A. J. Twogood 
was also another, as was H.M. Streeter, after- 
wards postmaster and State Senator. Others 
were James Boyd, John Wilbur and D. S. 
Strong, the latter being the last one on the 
old San Bernardino road. Unfortunately for 
some of the squatters, the Southern Pacific 



134 



ROUBIDOUX'S RAjNCH. 



railroad laud grant bill passed Congress and 
became a law on March 3, 1871, giving the 
company every alternative section for ten 
miles each side of the road. This land grant 
did not, of course, affect any lands which had 
been granted by the Mexican government. 
These squatters on railroad lands were as- 
sured by the railroad officials that they 
would be given preference in purchase but 
were left in ignorance of the price. A con- 
test as to the right of these lands to receive 
water on the same terms as settlers on the 
Jurupa, the uncertainty as to ultimate cost 
per acre, led to much worry, bad feeling and 
litigation. Some of the squatters had been 
on their claims a year before they received 
any water from the upper canal. 




CHAPTEE X. 

WHAT "gringos" LEARNED FROM "gREASERS." 

The first century since actual possession 
of California was taken b}" Hpanisli col- 
onists had passed in 1870, and the countiy 
had been in quiet ownership of the Ameri- 
cans for over tw^enty years. The difference 
In growth under Spanish occupation and 
under American occupation was stupendous. 
The careful student of history must be struck 
wdth the failure of Spain as a colonizing 
power. California contained 92,517 people 
in 1850 and more than half of these had ar- 
rived in the two previous years under the 
stimulus of the gold excitement. In 1870 
the state had increased to 560,267 popula- 
tion. 

It seemed to the Americans that the Span- 
iard had done little or nothing during his 
century of occupancy ; but it must be remem- 
bered that the Spaniard has possessed only in 



136 



KOUBIDOUX S RA^^CH. 



small degree the unrest of the Anglo-Saxon. 

There is no doubt that the first Americans 
in California looked upon the Spanish set- 
tlers with a good deal of contempt. After 
becoming better acquainted, this was changed 
to genuine respect. 

The American colonist found all his prev- 
ious experience in farming set at naught. 
There were two seasons instead of four. Irri- 
gation took the place of rainfall. In all the 
perplexing problems which he found himself 
confronted with in a new, strange countr^^, 
the Spanish settler was his primary teacher. 

The Mexicans divide their country mto 
three zones, the "tierras calientes," or hot 
lands next to the coast; the ''tierras templa- 
das," or temperate, elevated lands further 
Inland, and the "tierras frias," or cold lands 
in the mountainous region. In California the 
'tierras templadas" are on the coast and the 
" tierras calientes" in the interior. Ocean cur- 
rents and great deserts account for these dif- 
ferences. Not all California is hot. 



ROUBIDOUX'S RANCH. 



137 



The first Spanish voyagers who entered 
San Diego Bay looked ujDon hills and plains 
utterly barren of trees and almost so of any 
vegetation. The coast clear to Monterey was 
equally forbidding. When the interior was 
penetrated, some few scattering trees were 
found, but for six months of the year the 
comitry was an arid desert. 

The Franciscans, with their knowledge of 
agriculture and horticulture, felt sure that 
everj^hing would grow in California that 
grew in New Spain. It was only a season 
or two that their theories were changred to 
actual facts by the work of their own hands. 

The Franciscans brought to California 
many things in the plant line which go to 
sustain life, as well as many of the luxuries. 
It was but a few years until around their 
mission stations were growing things now so 
common, such as grapes, peaches, olives, 
figs, pomegranates, melons, wheat, corn, be- 
side cattle, not one of which was native to 
California. 



138 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



A century of experience had taught the 
Spanish-Californian how to live in the tropi- 
cal and semi-tropical land and be comfort- 
able. A temperature of 105 or 110 degrees 
is enough to strike terror, but if you know 
how to live, what to eat, what lO drink, and 
how to sleep, the nearly furnace heat may be 
mitigated and life made endurable for the two 
or three months of the 3^ear when the mer- 
cury in the tube shows a disposition to get 
out at the top. 

In the first place, the American found the 
Spanish-Californian living in a house con- 
structed of materials and built in a way best 
suited to ward off heat. His material was 
large unburned bricks, dried in the sun and 
laid up in thick walls. The roof was also 
made of earth with just slope enough to shed 
the rain. Going into one of these houses in 
smnmer was much like going into a cave. 
Then again, the Calif ornian opened his house 
i\ ide at night to admit the cool air, and shut 




EOUBIDOUX'S RANCH. 



139 



•* up in the morning, keeping the cool air im- 
^jrisoned to add to comfort during the day. 

Then for keeping his drinking water, the 
.Mtive had a large miglazed earthern jar hung 
unt'er a shed where the wind could strike it. 
round this jar, called an "olla," (pro- 
n« unced o-ya) was usualty a woolen blanket 
wrapped tightly. This olla was always filled 
in the early morning, as the nights were cool 
and the water in the streams fell to the morn- 
ing's temperature. The evaporation during 
the day kept the water cool. The newcomer 
was surprised to find the water in the jar re- 
freshing even in the hottest part of the day. 
Thus he found two of his problems already 
solved for him. 

As to eating and drinking, the Spanish- 
Californian was abstemious and temperate— 
another lesson for the Americans. In hot 
weather he forsook beef as a food largely, 
and ate melons, figs, grapes and cereals. It 
is true wine was made and drunk, but the 
wines were so mild and pure that a great 



140 



KOUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



quantit}^ had to be swallowed in order to pro- 
duce any effect on the head. The American 
usually insisted on beefsteak for breakfast 
and roast beef, boiled beef or corned beef 
and cabbage, coffee and pie for his dinner, 
preceded by whiskey cocktails. After his 
usual breakfast or dinner in such a climate 
it is small wonder he felt the heat. iVnother 
thing he learned was to get up early and do 
his da3^'s work before the sun was hot. 

Americans in California still make the mis- 
take of trjdng to work and do business during 
the hottest part of the day, instead of com- 
mencing before sunrise and completing the 
day's work about 10 o'clock. Work between 
these hours is worth twice as much as later 
in the day, with comfort to man and beast. 

Shun banquets and church suppers as you 
w^ould a pestilence. The do^Ti-to-date church 
is a club with incidental worship. I copy 
from a bill of fare of a church supper given 
in my to^Ti : Pork, chicken, beef, four or 
five kinds each of cake, salads, and pie, end- 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



141 



ing of course with ice cream and hot coffee. 
Then people go home in a beastly state of in- 
digestion and lay all consequent bad feeling 
to the hot weather. 

In all tropical countries there are numer- 
ous small insects which like to fasten them- 
selves to fruit and particularly to fruit hav- 
ing a rough or fuzzy surface. No fruit 
should be eaten fresh unless thorouo-hh' 
washed first. Children especially should be 
^^'atched that thev do not eat fruit taken ridit 
from the tree, vine or plant on which it 
grows. Small insects and the dust may cause 
stomach disorders which are laid to the fruit, 
which if it had been thoroughly washed 
would have been safe to eat. 

I have been for forty years in some of the 
hottest parts of California, Arizona and Mex- 
ico, and am fully convinced that life may be 
made tolerable and even comfortable in those 
places. Be careful what you eat and drink. 
Never mind where you sleep — that is a small 
matter as long as it is outdoors. If you drop 



142 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



such heat-producing things as ham and eggs, 
bacon, beef, pork, greasy pastry, and drinlv 
cool, (not ice-cold) water, you will find 
comfort increased fifty percent. That is what 
we learned at Eiverside forty years ago. 
These remarks apply to summer only. The 
balance of the year things may be eaten 
which the people of temperate zones usually 
eat, who follow sedentar}^ occupations. 

At all kinds of ranch work it is of the 
highest importance to preface the day's labor 
with a good breakfast. Many years' ex- 
perience has led me, after mature reflection 
to recommend the following: Cantaloupes, 
oranges, grapefruit, coffee, toast, fresh 
ranch eggs fried or poached, fried chicken, 
hot biscuit, fried momitain trout, liver and 
bacon, beefsteak Spanish style or with 
mushrooms, pork or mutton chops, plain or 
breaded, corn bread, corn fritters, sliced 
tomatoes and cucumbers, wheat cakes and 
maple syrup. Be sure and start the day 




ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



143 



right. If the stomach is 0. K. the head and 
muscles are bomid to be so. 

Most of the Americans who came to Cali- 
fornia after the railroad was built had never 
slept out of doors. They had been tauglit 
that ''night air" was mihealthy and that the 
proper way was to shut themselves up tight 
in bedrooms, not allowing the smallest parti- 
cle of ventilation for fear of a deadlv 
"draught", bringing colds, pneumonia and 
consumption with eventual death in a few 
years. What was their surprise in California 
to find natives and those who had been in the 
country a few years, sleeping with the con- 
stellations for a canopy. Instead of being 
sickly, these people seemed to be particularly 
robust. Coughs and colds were scarce, and 
some consumptives had been known to re- 
cover b}^ living an outdoor life. Small 
wounds or scratches which would have 
proved troublesome elsewhere, healed up 
with marvelous speed. 

The matter of clothing is not important. 



144 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



Most of the communities and towns have 
laws requiring a certain amomit of clothing 
to be worn, but they have not been very 
strictly enforced during the past season 
against women and girls. The old timers 
among the men found a blue woolen shirt, 
blue overalls, slouch hat, and boots about all 
that was necessary any time of year; the 
women wore calico dresses, and perhaps 
other things; native children usually w^ore 
neatly fitting tan suits. 

Since the foregoing w^as written, I was 
gratified to see the following authoritative 
endorsement : 

Washington, Aug. 18. — "Medical men," 
said Surgeon General Rupert Blue of the 
Public Health Service, ''are a unit in advis- 
hig that one eat plenty of fraits, green vege- 
tables and as little meat as possible during 
the days when the sun sizzles. 

"Eat sparingly of starchy foods, like pota- 
toes, but eat plenty of such vegetables as 
agree with you. 




EOUBIDOUX S KANCH. 



145 



* Leave alcohol alone. If you will drink 
alcoholic drinks, take them with the greatest 
possible moderation. Most of the soft drinks 
on sale at the soda fomitains are good. But 
buttermilk is a grand summer drink, and 
sweet milk, if 23ure, is excellent. 

"White clothes are the coolest, as every 
one knows, and that light suits are being 
worn more and more in hot weather is a good 
thing for the public health as well as for the 
laundryman and the dry cleaner. Blue under- 
wear is really seriously recommended." 



CHAPTER XI. 

EARLY CHX^RCHES BY KEY. I. W. ATHERTON. 

The first Yisit of the writer to the mesa, 
purchased not long afterwards as the site for 
an enterprise known at first as "The Southern 
California Colony Association," and later 
and more widely as RiYerside, Avas in July or 
August, 1870. 

It was by iuYitation of and in company 
with Judge North that we went on a tour of 
inquiry and inspection. The trip was made 
from Los Angeles via San Bernardino. On 
leaYing San Bernardino we made for the ex- 
treme northern point of the mesa, intending 
to traYerse it for some miles to the south. 
There was no trail where we attempted to 
cross the riYer. Verv soon there were sisjns 
of quicksand. Happily, by a liYely concert 
of action on our part, both horse and buggy 




SmBmSS 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



147 



were soon gotten out of the threatened 
trouble. A second attempt, at a carefully 
selected place, was successful, and in triumph 
we mounted the bank and gained the pla- 
teau. What a place and scene met our view! 
A bare, dry, sun-kissed, and wind-swept mesa, 
stretching for miles toward the south, having 
not a tree or shrub in sight, and only the 
scantiest possible remains of what we as- 
sumed to have been, at one time, a growth 
of grass. 

Up and down this mesa, the length, breadth 
and general characteristics of which are fa- 
miliar to you all, we rode. Every now and 
then, with a tool in hand, we would dig up 
and sample the soil. 

The possibilities of the tract to make good 
returns to its cultvators, under favorable 
conditions, were thought to be quite apparent. 
And then and there, I think, the decision was 



148 



ROUBIDOUX'S RA^'CH. 



formed, if water and plenty of it could be se- 
cured, and all else should prove favorable, 
to purchase the tract and start the contem- 
plated enterprise. That was Riverside in the 
seed and germ — its first actual conception. 
And with the idea shaping itself in his brain, 
the Judge and his companions returned to 
Los Angeles, via the Ohino ranch. 

About a year later the writer's health 
failed. There was temporary loss of voice 
and incipient lung trouble. He must get 
further inland. The decision was in favor of 
Riverside. A contract was made for a ten 
acre lot and the building of a house. The 
location faced the south line of the mile 
square laid out by the company as Riverside. 
Years afterward it was known as the "Publi- 
cover Tract." To this place, leaving Los 
Angeles, he removed with his family in No- 
vember, 1871. He was commissioned by the 








ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



149 



A. H. M. S. now the C. H. M. S. His support 
at first came largely from that source. How 
great the contrast between then and now. 
The whole country, far and wide was for the 
most part open and unimproved. The only 
railroad was that from Los Angeles to Wil- 
mington — twenty miles, Los Angeles had a 
population of about 10,000, for the most part 
Mexicans and others largely from the south. 
Save a little hamlet at El Monte, Rubottom's 
at what is now Spadra, and the old adobe at 
Cucamonga, there was not a house between 
Los Angeles and San Bernardino. The whole 
route was a desert, and much of it heavy with 
sand. The chaparral and brush were full of 
quail and rabbit. San Bernardino itself, al- 
though a county seat, was a dull and sleepy 
old town, void of enterprise, with a popula- 
tion of about a thousand. 

Riverside, of course, was then in its incipi- 



150 



KOrBIDOlX S RANCH. 



ency. There were perhaps twenty-five fami- 
lies in all. By public and private enterprise, 
to meet already existing needs, there had 
been provided a company's otHee. a school 
house, a hotel, a store, and a shop each for a 
carpenter, a blacksmith, a butcher and a 
shoemaker. The only canal at that time ran 
through the place just east of Judge North's 
residence, and then south, crossini: the ar- 
royo in a high tlunie. Most of the houses 
were small and of cheap construction. The 
settlers were chiefly from the "interior" or 
the "far east." None of them knew anything 
about irrigation or citrus fruit culture. They 
had it all to learn. But they had intelligence, 
pluck and plenty of push. Improvements 
were few and far between, and orchards were 
in embryo. Wind-breaks were in the infan- 
tile stage, but full of promise. All outside 
of this, with the exception of a narrow mar- 



liOUiJIDOUX S RANCH. 



151 



gin along the river bottom, was a sere, unin- 
viting, dreary desert. While ever and anon, 
just for variety and to make things lively, 
the Mojave zephyrs, rushing through the Ca- 
jon Pass and sweeping over the intervening 
sandy plain, filling all the air with clouds of 
dust, and seemingly concentrating all their 
power at the mesa's edge, would thunder at 
our doors day and night, often for three days 
at a time, as if in rage at our intrusion on 
their hitherto undisputed territory, and as if 
bent upon the destruction of ourselves and 
all our effects. So much for the situation in 
its material aspects. What interest was taken 
in educational and spiritual things? 

The first public building was a school 
house. This was located on Sixth Street, 
between Mulberry and Lime. The first school 
was taught by Dr. Charles Brown; the second 
by Mr. L. C. Waite, and numbered perhaps 



152 



EOUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



twenty-five pupils, at least three of whom 
were furnished by Judge North and two by 
the resident missionary. The first religious 
service was held and the first sermon preached 
at the school house in the summer or early 
fall of 1871, by the Reverend Mr. Higbie of 
Compton, then employed by the company as 
a surveyor, and engaged in lajang out, sys- 
tematically, the entire tract. The writer, as 
the first resident minister of the place, began 
labor here, as has been said, in November, 
1871. For more than a year religious services, 
including the Sunday School, were held at 
the school house. Religiously, the few peo- 
ple then resident here were greatly divided. 
Among them were representatives of every 
phase and type, both of belief and unbelief. 
Thesec onsiderations, leading to indifferent- 
ism and inaction on the part of some, and to 
the absence of sympathic and hearty co-oper- 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



151 



ation on the part of others, in whom the de- 
nominational feeling and preference was 
rather strong, naturally made the work of 
building up a Congregational church, even 
though of a liberal type, laborious and diffi- 
cult, especially as Congregationalists at that 
time were so few. There were yet other ob- 
stacles of which I will here mention but one. 
In his effort to build for Christ the mission- 
ary would doubtless have had more of prac- 
tical sympathy and aid but for the fact that 
all the settlers, professed disciples of Christ 
included, were over-pressed with work, of a 
new and untried character, in a region where 
they were not yet acclimated, and under such 
new and unwonted conditions as to exhaust 
all their time and strength. Take it all in 
all, the burden of labor — even that of collect- 
ing funds for and building a church edifice — 
fell largely, in some respects wholly, upon 



154 



EOUBIDOUX S EA^^CH. 



the missionary. Co-workers, in full and ac- 
tive sympathy and right at hand to aid, were 
comparatively few. 

These and other things, taken together, 
formed a combination of difficulties and tri- 
als, calling for the constant exercise of faith 
and patience. The stress of effort, at first, 
was to get all lovers of Christ to unite, if 
possible, for the time being, in one organiza- 
tion. Failing in this, a few disciples, in order 
for more united and efficient work, and to 
secure greatly-needed and permanent aid, at 
length banded themselves together under the 
name of the "First Church of Christ of Riv- 
erside." This was in April, 1872. Records 
and data being lost, it is now difficult to fix 
with precision either the date of organization 
or just the number of original members; but 
that is not a vital matter; the move was 
made and the infant church came to birth. 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



155 



By invitation of the writer, his immediate 
successor at Los Angeles, Rev. J. T. Wills, 
was present, preached the sermon and per- 
fected the organization. 

During the summer and early fall of the 
same 3^ear a special effort was made by the 
pastor with reference to the erection of a 
chapel. A lot was donated by the company 
at the corner of Sixth and Vine streets. Sub- 
scriptions to be paid in money or work were 
first obtained in Riverside. These were freely 
given but were in no case large. Aid was 
obtained, through the agency of Rev. Dr. 
Warren, from the Congregational churches 
in San Francisco, Oakland and Sacramento; 
also by the pastor from different sources in 
the east; a liberal grant ($500 I believe) was 
made by the C. C. S. B. The plan was then 
drawn and the contract let to a man in San 
Bernardino; the work was commenced in 








156 



KOUBIDOUX'S RANCH 



December, 1872. While this was going on, 
in some unknown manner the pastor's house 
took fire and was burned with all its contents 
at about 5 a. m., January 5th, 1873. This 
was a heavy and at the time an almost crush- 
ing blow, but pastor and family were taken at 
once into the homes and hearts of the people. 
Judge North and others were active in the 
way of relief. The entire settlement was 
ready with sympathy and help. Lumber was 
purchased and drawn from San Bernardino. 
The church contractor, with all his working 
force, and others also who gathered from the 
settlement, were on hand to build. And ere 
a week had passed the pastor and his family 
were quite comfortabh' settled in their new 
home. Aside from the aid thus given, assis- 
tance was freely and generously given by the 
First Congregational churches of San Fran- 
cisco, Oakland and Sacramento, and also to 







ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



157 



some extent by friends in Los Angeles. Al- 
together what was thus received, though far 
short of the actual loss sustained, was a most 
timely relief and help, and was greatly appre- 
ciated, most of all because of the sympathy 
that lay back of and inspired it. At once 
the work of the chapel was resumed. To the 
best of my memory it was completed and 
ready for use in March or April, 1873, just 
about a year from the time of the organiza- 
tion of the church. Soon after its completion 
it was dedicated, the pastor himself, in the 
absence of any near snd available help, con- 
ducting the service. Through the interest 
and influence of a young man from New 
York City, who had spent the winter at Riv- 
erside, a handsome donation of new and 
choice hymn books was received at that time 
from Barnes and Co. 

It should be said that the chapel was com- 



158 



KOUBIDOUX S EA^'CH. 



pleted substantially free from debt; and fur- 
ther, that inasmuch as all denominations had 
united in building it, when the time came 
that Episcopalians, Methodists or Baptists de- 
sired an occasional service, in the interests 
of unity, peace and Christian fellowship, they 
were cordially invited to hold it in the chapel, 
and accepted the offer. The pastors who 
thus officiated at stated times were Rev. Mr. 
Knighten, Methodist, of San Bernardino and 
Rev. Mr. Loop, Episcopalian, of San Gabriel 
Mission. Whenever these men came, as an 
evidence of the friendly and catholic spirit 
existing among us, we all kept together, form- 
ing but one congregation. 

This continued for some length of time. 
The first to draw off, organize and hold a 
seperate service were the Methodists, using 
for the purpose the school house. But the 
mutual arrangement between us and the 



ROUBIDOUX'S RANCH 



159 



Episcopalians was continued, I believe, up to 
the time I left. Too much cannot be said in 
praise of the spirit and interest shown by 
Judge Brown and his daughter Miss Settie. 
The Judge was the leader of our choir and 
Miss Settie served as organist. Both were 
efficient and steadfast, and endeared them- 
selves to us all. This was true also of the 
Twogoods, of the Roes, of Mr. Traver and 
others who were Baptists. During the period 
of the slow growth of Riverside, five or more 
years, and with the exception named, all 
those of similar faith, though of different 
church polity, kept together, Our little Con- 
gregational church, in a spirit which cannot 
but be approved, spread its wing and brooded 
over them all, thus becoming a sort of a fos- 
ter mother to the different churches that 
were, at that time or afterwards, formed in 
Riverside. This is a history of what was 



160 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



begun and done in religious and church work 
during my residence in Riverside. As a re- 
sult of overwork, the pastor's health began to 
fail in 1874, and such was his condition in 
March, 1875, that he resigned and found a 
new field of labor and more bracing climate 
at Cloverdale, Sonoma County, north of San 
Francisco. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE NAVEL ORANGE. 

The first oranges which fruited in Cali- 
fornia were seedhngs. The fruit proved to 
be fine, but the trees uncertain bearers. There 
were budded varieties which had been 
brought from orange growing countries, par- 
ticularly the Malta Blood and St. Michael, 
which succeeded well. Riverside was des- 
tined to produce the one variety of orano-e 
best suited to the state and which finally put 
all others, with few exceptions, into the ilmbo 
of 'lias beens." It is to a woman that we are 
indebted for this great orange— Mrs. Eliza 
Tibbetts. 
^ The facts related here are now no longer 
disputed. For a time, however, there was 
great disputation as to whom belonged the 
credit of giving the navel orange to the world. 
It is true that Luther C. Tibbetts owned the 
land upon which the first navel trees were 



162 



ROUBIDOUX'S RANCH. 



planted in California; it is also true that he 
spent the last years of his life in the Eiverside 
County hospital, or poor-house. But that he 
had nuich to do with the navel orange is not 
true. All the facts concerning the navel or- 
ange are well known to the writer, who was 
intimateh' acquamted with Mr. and Mrs. 
Tihhetts/ 

This couple were among those mentioned 
who were attracted hy Judge Xorth's scheme 
for a fruit raisino' colon v in California. Mr. 
Tihhetts was an original aholitionist and aft- 
er the Civil War had the poor judgment to go 
South. Instead of keeping discreetly silent 
on the issues of the war, he was constantly 
reminding the Southerners of their great 
wickedness in holding slaves and their sub- 
sequent attempt to disrupt the Union. Any- 
body can stand a fair whipping, but it re- 
(juires more than human nature to stand con- 
stant reminder of it. Mr. Tibbetts was a fair 
representative of a class of hot-heads. Xorth 
and South, who were largely responsible for 




mm^Brnf^^m^. 



ROUBIDOTJX S RANCH. 



163 



the Civil War but did not do any of the actual 
fighting. He was oblivious of the fact that 
his ancestors brought sugar from the West 
Indies, made it into rmn, took the rum to the 
coast of Africa and traded it off for a cargo 
of slaves, and then sold the slaves to the 
Southern planters. 

Mr. Tibbetts was living in Washington in 
1870, and among his neighbors was Prof. 
William 0. Saunders, head of a division in 
the Department of Agriculture to which 
citrus fruits were assigned. Mrs. Tibbetts 
and Mrs. Saunders were friends, and after 
the removal of the Tibbetts family to Eiver- 
side a correspondence was kept up. Mr> Tib- 
betts located an "eight^^" on the strip of q-ov- 
ernment land south of Riverside which ad- 
joined the eighty acres of T. W. Cover. Mr. 
Cover's brothers, Perry and Josiah, adjoined 
on the east. Across the road on the north 
from T. W. Cover's ranch, E. W. Holmes 
bought a place and was the pioneer in what 
became known as '^Brockton Square," from 



164 



ROUBIDOUX S BA^'CH. 



the fact that most of the purchasers were 
from Brockton, Mass. Mr. Ilohnes was also] 
fiilly conversant with the facts herewith 
given and related them to me again shortly 
before his death. 

Mr. Tibbetts was by nature disputatious 
and eccentric to a degree which amounted 
almost to insanity. He had read law ex- 
tensivelv and was never entirely happy mi- 
less engaged in litigation. ^lost of his time 
seemed to be spent looking for trouble. He 
always found it, and was shot once in the 
left arm, over a land squabble. In his 
numerous law suits he was his own attorney, 
one reason being, perhaps, the dislike regular 
lawyers had of acting for him. He even 
appeared in argument for himself before the 
State Supreme Court, which he had a perfect 
right to do, in spite of the fact that it is tradi- 
tion that a lawyer's poorest client is himself. 
Mr. Tibbetts reveled in legal jaro-on. 

My recollection is now. and I am sure the 
records will bear me out. that for the first ten 




ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



165 



years Mr. Tibbetts lived in Eiverside, he was> 
never without one or more law suits. He 
had suits about stra}^ stock, land, water, and 
every conceivable subject. His land went 
imcultivated because he would not consent to 
the terms about acquiring water. He liveJ 
constantly in an atmosphere thick with litiga- 
tion. His nionev went for necessarv le^ral 
expenses. A good part of his tune must have 
been spent composing prolix legal documents. 
He was, however, honest in his dealings, and 
was a genial companion when he could I>? 
kept from talking about his law suits. The 
Tibbetts lived in a plain slab house which 
probably did not cost more than §500. 

Mrs. Tibbetts was a motherly woman of 
good education who was liked by all who 
knew her. She was domestic and did not 
share her husband's love for litigation. My 
belief is that she was several years his senior. 
Both were spiritualists, both had been mar- 
ried before, and Mrs. Tibbetts' son bv a for- 

















166 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



iiier liusbaiul had married Mr. Tibbetts' 
slaughter by a former wife. 

About 18(38 the United States Consul at 
Bahia, Brazil, reported that he had heard, 
through an American woman, of a veiy fine 
orange groAvn near there ^^ hich v.as seedless. 
He afterward succeeded in o-errhio- some of 
the yoimg trees and sent them to the Depart- 
ment of Agricidture at Washnigton. They 
were taken in hand by Prof. Saimders. who 
budded other trees from them and succeeded 
in getthig a dozen or so of good trees. There 
were two localities in the Fnited States then 
growing oranges successfully — Cali f oniia 
and Florida. Mrs. Saimders suggested that 
a couple of the ^^oimg navel trees budded in 
tlie orange house at Washington be sent to 
her old friend. Mrs. Tibbetts, at Eiverside. 
This was done, the two trees arrived in 187f) 
and were planted at the little Tibbetts home. 
Xo one can remember that they ever re- 
ceived any attention from Mr. Tibbetts. In 
all my acquaintance with Mr. Tibbetts I 








ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



167 



never heard liim mention those trees. It was 
fortunate that Mrs. Tibbetts was a domestic, 
woman, otherwise the navel orano-o mioht 
never have been heard of. The fact has been 
mentioned that the Tibbetts' claim was with- 
out W'ater, although the main canal passed 
over it. ]\Ir. Tibbetts refused to buy a 'Svater 
rlo'ht." AVater was scarce and Mrs. Tibbetts, 
instead of throwino; her dish-water out the 
back door, carefully poured it around those 
two orange trees. 

Under this good woman's loving care the 
trees grew and throve. They bore a few 
oranges in the season of 1870, and so much 
interest w^as taken by the whole settlement 
that quite a number of orange growers gath- 
ered at the house of Georo-e W. Garcelon to 
test the first navel orano-e. It proved to ]w 
all and more than the Consul at Bahia had 
claimed for it. The fame of the fruit (piickly 
spread and buds from the two trees Avere 
soon transferred to seedlino' oranofe trees. This 
was first done in the nurserv of Thomas 



168 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



Cover by his brother, Josiah, and Samuel 
McCoy. It was not long before the thought 
of planting anything but navel orange trees 
was entertained by nobody, at least in Eiver- 
side- 

Such in brief is the history of the Wash- 
ington Xavel Orange. It was estimated some 
years ago that this noble fruit had added a 
valuation of §200,000,000 to California. 
That is certainly a low valuation. The esti- 
mated exportation for a season has been 50,- 
000 carloads of 400 boxes each. These cars 
if stretched in a single line would reach 500 
miles and would require 1000 of the largest 
locomotives to draw them. The boxes if laid 
end to end would reach half way round the 
globe, Riverside and Redlands are 3^et the 
largest shipping points. 

[t may be remarked that the navel trees 
sent to Florida from Washington by Prof. 
Samiders proved failures, the climate being 
imsuitable. Florida trees proved failures in 
California as well. 




•"^ . 'i^iiiBBHlilk. 




-''^■HHHk 




' ^fl^^^^^^^H^H 


ittiii 












^^^Hjpp^i 




R^K 


.^^^^^^■■Hi /j^^^RHj^^HRT' 


?S^i 


^^^^HEfi^ ' f ^Bj 


^W 


^^^^^^^^^^,^^k_ ^H 


n 



MRS. ELIZA TIBBETTS 



ROUBIDOUX S EANCH. 



169 



The contest between the partisans of bud- 
ded and seedling fruit kept up some years 
long-cr, but the uncertain bearing qualities of 
the seedling caused it to be gradually discard- 
ed. Old seedling groves have been budded 
with the navel. Anybody now who would 
plant anything else would be considered 
crazy. Another California variety, originat- 
ed by Thomas A. Garey, was the Mediter- 
ranean Sweet, but it is in no sense a rival of 
the Navel, as it ripens later in the season. 

Eor a time there was rather a warm contest 
over a name for the navel orange. Eiverside 
people insisted on its being called the ''Eiver- 
side N'avel," but common consent at last con- 
ferred the name it now bears, "Washington 
JSyavel," out of grateful remembrance to the 
city where it came from and to the Father of 
his Country as ^vell. Durinsi- his visit to Eiv- 
erside in 1903, President Eoosevelt replanted 
one of the original navel trees in front of the 
Mission Inn, where it now stands. 

The women of America should never for- 



170 



EOUBIDOUX'S KA>CH. 



p-et Mrs. Tibbetts. She is desorvmo; of a 
statue ill any * 'hall of f ame. ' ' AVlieii the tune 
comes that the great State of California shall 
carve in marble and place in her beautiful 
state capitol statues of those who have con- 
ferred the oTeatest benefits on the common- 
wealth, a prominent place will undoubtedly 
l)e given to the mother of the navel orange — 
Eliza Tibbetts. 

The oidy woman so honored thus far is 
Isabella the Catholic who never even heard 
of California : at her side stands Columbus 
holding a baseball, and she exhibits only a 
languid interest as he explahis the game. This 
piece of art cost $30,000 while Mrs. Tibbetts 
was permitted to spend her old age in pov- 
erty. 

The women ^^•ho came to Eiverside in the 
early years were distinguished by those qual- 
ities which have marked the women of Amer- 
ica from rivmouth to California, ^[any of 
them were finely educated and left comforta- 
ble homes in the East to help their fathers. 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



171 



brothers and husbands in a new coimtry, un- 
der new conditions. They soon became as 
well posted as the men. They took up the 
changed life with cheerfulness. I have seen 
women and girls hitch up teams, drive 
wagons, mowers and cultivators; any ranch 
girl who could not catch, bridle and saddle 
her own horse and mount without assistance 
was a curiosity. Boys and girls then thought 
as nmch of their horses as they now do of 
motorcycles and automobiles. Women be- 
came expert at horticulture and floriculture, 
and turned their knowledge to financial suc- 
cess. 



CHAPTER XIII. 
1875. 

The journey from San Francisco to Elver- 
side fort}^ years ago was a serious matter. 
The present Coast line of the Southern Pa- 
cific railroad was built as far southward as 
Gih-o}^, eighty miles, and from that point 
there was a stage line down the coast to 
Salinas, San Luis Obispo, and on through 
Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles to 
San Dieo'o, but this line was almost exclu- 
sively for the carrying of the mail and the 
passengers were few. Steamers left for San 
Diego and coast ports and were usually three 
days in getting to San Pedro. A small tug 
met the steamer about five miles off shore 
and landed passengers at Wihnington. The 
city of San Pedro was not then on the map. 

The only railroad in Southern California 
was in operation between Wilmington and 
Los Angeles. At that cit}^ the traveler 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



173 



bound for Eiversidc or 8aii Bernardino 
took the stage line and rode over miles of 
desert wastes where now arc the towns of 
Pomona, Ontario, Upland, Eialto and Col- 
ton. There was not a house between liubot- 
tom's, six miles west of Pomona, to Cuca- 
monga, and not one from the latter place to 
8an Bernardino. In 1874, when the rail- 
road was completed to Eubottom's (Spa- 
dra) , a line of tri-weekty stages \^'as put on 
direct to lliverside, and ran over about the 
same line now traversed by the Salt Lake 
road, except that the stages crossed the river 
at the north end of Boubidoux mountain 
This stage line carried the mail and con- 
sumed two days in making the round ti'l\) — 
fare one way |3.00. Freight w^as hauled 
over the same road in the large four and six- 
horse wagons of those days. The proprietor 
of the stage line was H. W. Bobinson: he 
afterwards ran his stages through to San 
Bernardino by way of Biverside, thus be- 
ing compelled to cross the Santa Ana river 



174 



KOUBIDOUX'S RA^XH. 



again near Colton. It was a standing joke 
in San Bernardino that in the winter time, 
when the river was high, Eobinson's tri- 
weekl}' stage Ime came through one week 
and tried to get back the next. It is umiec- 
essary to say that there were no bridges 
across the river in those days. 

Dr. ^Yilliam Craig opened the Eivcrside 
Hotel in January 1871. It was on the site 
of the present Hbrary buikling and could pos- 
sibly have accommodated a couple of dozen 
]^eople. Water for the hotel was hauled. 
This hotel was burned in 1881 and not re- 
built, 

Brunn & Eoe, general merchants of San 
Bernardino, ver^^ early opened a store, near 
the northeast corner of Main and Eighth 
streets. The lumber out of which this build- 
ins: was constructed was cut on the mountain 
north of San Bernardino and hauled to the 
spot by teams. All the lumber used in Riv- 
erside was obtained from the same source. 
Ben Borcher manao'ed the store for Brunn 



iSSS&^^S 




'i^fK^B!c^)'^\^l 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



175 



& Eoc, who after a yenr or two, sold out to 
^Yalter Lyon and Emil lloscntlial, young 
men from Los Angeles. The store building 
was rough pine boards and battened, but the 
front was finished lumber with real glazed 
doors. Almost anj^thing could be bought at 
this store, from a paper of pins on down — 
or up — to a bottle of whiskey. 

Dr. Greves was the first postmaster and 
his office was in one corner of the store, 
xlbout a couple of dozen small pigeonholes 
was all the mail needed and on the arrival 
of the mailbag every second day, about all 
of the population assembled at the postoffice 
and the accammodating postmaster would 
toss letters out into the crowd if the owner 
liappened to be present. Dr. Greves was 
postmaster for over twelve years. 

On the same side of the street with the 
store and postoffice, about 100 feet north, 
Adam Smith ran a boarding house and 
])utcher shop. I do not remember that there 
^\'as anv other business on that block. The 



176 



ROUBIDOUX'S RANCH. 



block occupied by the Glenwood was vacant.. 
To the west of that, on the Loring corner, was 
a small adobe buildmg m which J. S. Love- 
land had a shoe shop. He died in San Diego 
in 190(5, over ninety years of age. Some- 
v»'here in the same vicinity, Sam Alder and 
Frank Petchner had a blacksmith and wagon 
shop. Another shop was located on the 
southwest corner of Market and Seventh 
streets. 

Halfway down the block, south on Mar- 
ket, was the office of the ''Southern Califor- 
nia Colony association." This was a neat 
wooden building, about 18x24 feet, lathed, 
]ilastered and painted. Here, on the day I 
nrrived, I met Judge Xortli and John G. 
Xorth, the latter being the telegraph opera- 
tor, with office in the same building. A tele- 
graph line had been built from Anaheim to 
San Bernardino and Riverside was on a 
''loop." As may be supposed the operator 
was not overburdened with business. He 
was not paid a salary, but commissions, 



M&Im3^^:mM 






ROUBIDOUX'S RANCH 



177 



which somedmes amounted to as much as 
$20.00 a month. Judge North's home was 
at the corner of Eighth street and the canaL 
He had a good hbrary, from which he 
loaned books to anyone. 

Over on Main street, south of Eighth and 
near the northwest corner of Ninth, stood a 
small wooden building, occupied as a druo- 
store by Hakes & Clift. There was a corral 
somewhere around there, but the foregoing 
described buildings embraced the 'business 
part of the city." There was one saloon lo- 
cated near the Glenwood corner on Main and 
Seventh. Not long afterwards there were 
were several more saloons. Westward of 
the plaza there were a few scattering houses 
not to exceed a dozen. 

The Congregationalists had a church two 
blocks north of the present Salt Lake depot. 
On the next block west was a small frame 
school house with seats for about forty pu- 
pils. Eeligious services were frequently 
held in the schoolhouse by the Methodists 



171 



EOUBIDOUX S RAIsCH. 



and they built a small church later on the site 
of their present chui'ch. 

The main settlement extended three miles 
southward and then stopped. Brockton 
Square was entirety unoccupied at the tune 
I speak of. Erom there to Pachappa the 
land was all settled on and the govermnent 
tract was taken up by settlers. A qo'^'' 
many thousand orange trees had been set out, 
almost entirely seedlmgs. Scipio Craig took 
the first load of grape cuttings into Eiver- 
side. He got them from Don Juan Dalton's 
ranch at Azusa, and among the varities was 
the famous Muscat of Alexandria. The 
grapes were mostty dried and packed in 
common sacks, sold the same as other dried 
fruit. It was not mitil some years afterwards 
that the grape growers learned to make rais- 
ins and pack them properly in boxes. 

People depended for a living mostly on 
their trades or the means thev had brouo:ht 
with them from the East. 

A great many thousand head of sheep 




KOUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



179 



were grazed on the plains east and south. On 
the west side of the river were a number of 
substantial farmers and stock raisers — 
Parks, Ben Abies, Jensen, Stewart and 
others, and these rather made light of the 
new settlers who were fruit farming on the 
desolate Jurupa mesa. 

The road northward out Main street led to 
San Bernardino by what was known as the 
''Spanishtown road," as it passed through 
the small Mexican settlement on the south 
side of the river near the present county line. 
On this road were the ranches of Edwin 
Caldwell, P. M. Calef and others. George 
D. Carleton had a nursery about two miles 
north of town. P. S. Eussell was also in the 
nursery business to the eastward of Carleton. 

A few Indians, the relics of the once 
numerous Mission tribes, had their camps 
near town, and their number may have been 
200. Their habitations were of the most 
squalid description and they seemed to have 
little genius for any sort of handicraft, made 



180 



ROUBIDOUX S RAXCH. 



no earthenware or baskets, living chiefly b}^ 
odd jobs of work obtained from the Ameri- 
cans. 

Social life was confined mostly to neio;h- 
borly calls, surprise parties and occasional 
picnics. There were no lodges and but two 
oi'ganized churches, which were very slimlv 
attended. Many of the early settlers were 
indifferent to religious matters. There were 
quite a nmnber of Spiritualists, among them 
Dr. Greyes. Dancing was not indulged in 
much and gatherings of any sort not com- 
mon. Eyerybody was too busy at work im- 
proying their places or making a liyino- to 
giye much attention to anything else. They 
were in bed early and arose with the first 
streaks of light which came oyer the Box 
' Spring hills. Of course the boys organized a 
brass band, and it played at San Bernardino 
during the political campaioii of 1876. 
The ordinary mode of conyeyance was the 
farm wagon, although there were a few bncr- 
o'ies and family carrias^es. Boys and girls 




ROUBIDOUX'S RANCH. 



181 



usually went riding horseback, but if tliev 
were out late they encountered trouble on 
reaching- home. There were no roads from 
one part of the country to another, only 
^^-agon trails, rough and dusty in summer. A 
trip to San Bernardino consumed a ^Ahole 
day, and to Los Angeles a week. 

Our sports were few. The boys used to 
play base ball just east of the Santa Fe deiiot 
on the Box Spring road, and there wrs full- 
as much "rooting," 'rag-chewing." and 
threats to macerate the mnpire as now. Old 
men of 80 can tell of a game played with an 
implement called a hoe, shaped thus: | — . 
The game was to divide a 10-inch stream of 
water into 132 furrows, 660 feet long and 
got the same amount runnino- through each 
Avithout any waste. The game had fully as 
much exercise as golf and the further ad- 
vantage of not being idiotic. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

A CHANGE OF OWNERSHIP. 

There is no doubt but that great dissatis- 
faction and discouragement existed in Eiver- 
side in 1873 and 1874. The settlement had 
increased in numbers very slowly. A circu- 
lar issued by Judge North in the former year 
only claims 300 people. The causes of dis- 
satisfaction were the defective water system, 
and that no one could get a clear title to lands, 
owing to the fact that the Jurupa Eancho had 
not yet been patented by the government. 
Another thing was lack of a market. Both 
the evils of land and water were an inheri- 
tance from the Spanish occupation and own- 
ership. Early settlers were not wealthy and 
had to have some immediate source of income 
in order to live. Many were dependent en- 
tirely on their trades and frequently had to 
go elsewhere to find work, leaving to wives 
and children the hard task of caring for their 
small ranches. 



EOUBIDOUX S KANCH. 



183 



Even when something was raised and sur- 
plus had, it was often difficult to find a 
market. I have known a man to load a two- 
horse wagon and start for Los Angeles, some 
distant mining camp or even Arizona, in the 
not over-encouraging task of finding pur- 
chasers for his produce. I have referred to 
one man who had invested |7,000 in his 
ranch; he was one of the most discouraged 
men I ever saw. Many had to yield to 
circumstances and go away. These com- 
bined with the 'knocker," or the "croaker" 
as he was then called, gave Eiverside a bad 
name abroad, l^o new settlers came in from 
other parts of California, and few from any- 
where else. 

All the little communities and towns then 
in Southern California were antagonistic to 
a degree which was amusing. If the new- 
comer landed at San Diego he was assured 
that w^as the only place to locate, and was 
treated to the most doleful accounts of affairs 
at Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Ber- 



184 



KOUBIDOUX S KA>JCH. 



iiarcliiio, Anaheim and Eiverside. If he 
went to any of those jjlaces he heard much 
the same story about San Diego and every 
other place except the one he happened to b^* 
in at the tune. 

Judge North was naturally the brunt of all 
the complaints at Eiverside. He was 
hampered by lack of means. Neither Mr. 
Stewart nor Mr. Telton would advance any 
more money. Land sales had ahnost ceased ; 
people who had bought land and lots on time 
could not make deferred payments ; the 
water system did not pay expenses. 

In 1874 occurred an event which changed 
the whole course of affairs at Eiverside. S. 
C. Evans, a banker of Fort Wayne, Indiana, 
was in San Francisco; he there met Capt. 
Wm. T. Say ward, who had landed interests 
in Southern California in comiection with the 
San Jacinto grants. Mr. Evans was not 
averse to changing his location, in fact that 
was a part of the object of his trip. Say- 
ward got him interested in Southern Califor- 



ROUBIDOUX'S EANCH 



185 



nia, they made a trip to the South, and the 
immediate result was the purchase by them of 
the "Hartshorn Tract" at $4 per acre. The 
tract had no water, but filings for water to 
irrigate the tract were made by Sayward on 
the Santa Ana river below the Riverside 
canal. As a matter of course, a canal to 
irrigate the Hartsliorn Tract would have to 
cross the Jurupa lands. N'egotiations were 
I ;.gun with Judge Xorth for rights of way 
but no satisfactory arrangements could be 
made. Eights of way would also have to be 
secured over private lands which were un- 
proved, and these would be expensive. 
^ Sayward and Evans returned to San Fran- 
cisso and saw Charles ^. Felton; they fomid 
him pretty well discouraged over the situa- 
tion at Riverside, and blaming Judge I^orth. 
Felton listened attentively to offers for pur- 
chase of his holdings; himself and J. H. 
Stewart owned five-sevenths of the Southern 
California Colony Association. IS^egotiations 
proceeded rapidly and Mr. Felton offered to 



186 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



sell out for what he had put in — $52,000. 
The property is now probably worth |20,- 
000,000. The deal was closed, but not 
altogether in cash. Mr. Felton took some of 
the Hartshorn lands, which afterwards be- 
came famous as the ''Evans and Eelton 
Tract." Mr. Stewart sold out two 3^ears 
later. 

Mr. Evans returned East to close up his 
business so as to permit of his coming to 
California and remaining permanently. Say- 
ward returned at once to Eiverside and be- 
came manager of the Southern California 
Colony Association. The canal which had 
been commenced on the Hartshorn Tract was 
temporarily suspended and the Eiverside 
canal extended from Pachappa to^^-ard 
Temescal \Yash. A mam avenue was laid 
out straight to the site of Corona or "Al- 
vord," as it was then called. All of the lands 
which the canal covered were surveyed and 
streets designated every half mile: the 
checkerboard plan was again followed, as 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



187 



Mr. Evans was a thorough Western man 
and had never seen a town laid off m any 
other way. It was designed to sell off these 
lands in tracts of ten to forty acres, and as 
they were patented, purchasers became 
nmnerous . Many original settlers of River- 
side went down to the Hartshorn lands. I 
think all of the tracts along Magnolia Avenue 
were sold off by 1876, and largely set out 
to trees and vines. The name ''Arlington" 
was given to the tract in 1877 by vote of the 
people. 

The experience at Eiverside was of im- 
mense value to the first settlers on the Harts- 
horn lands. It had been demonstrated just 
what would succeed and pay ; nursery stock 
was plentiful and cheap, and right at home. 
It was not necessary for the newcomer to 
feel his way along in the dark expensively 
and painfully, for by that time there were 
plenty of men, women and children to tell 
him what to do, and show him how to do it. 

Unfortmiately, Capt. Sayward proved 



-v^i-l -x^l 



.vJ 



ISS 



ROUBIDOVX S KANi H, 



himself uioapablo of haiuilino; a f fail's ar l\iv- 
oi^ido sucoossfully. Ho was a man past mid- 
dle life, eoueeited. iirnoniiu and leeheroiis: 
was a believer in ueiUier the honesty of man 
nor the virtue of woman. Ho seandalized 
the settlement by his "open and notorious" 
immonil Ife. He was slippery in his dealimrs. 
careless of the truth and uncertain ovnerally. 
These characteristii*s of Sayward ^nn-haps 
ivached the ears of ^Ir. Kvans and hastened 
liis innninir to Kivei^ide. On his arrival he 
tOK^k chariiv of n\attei>i himself. ^Ir. Kvans 
was also at that time past middle life and 
woix^ a louiT white beard which made him 
appear older than he really was. Men of his 
ace th.en wore full beards and shaved the 
upper lip. ^Ir. Kvans was somewhat brusque 
in his manner, combative in his nature and 
made a itihmI many enemies. He bcirtvu a 
more extensive advertisiuir of Eiverside. in 
w hich he wi\s ably assisted by H. J. Kudisill, 
his brother-in-law. whom he made secretary 
of the i\^mpanv. 



r>'^^ 



'5mftt®SS2lSi 



KOUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



189 



In order to handle the growing interests, 
it ao'ain became necessary to form a new cor- 
2)oration, This was called the Riverside 
Land and Irrigating Company, which took 
over all the nnsold i)roperty of the Silk Center 
Association, the Southern California Colony 
Association, the canals, the irrigated Hart- 
shorn lands and the valley lands toward 
Temescal Wash belonging to the San Jacnto 
grant. The irrigating system was now six- 
teen miles in length, but the old IMexican sys- 
tem of open ditches ^^'as still adhered to be- 
cause of the expense of doing anything else. 
iVt least half of the water turned hito the 
heads of the canals was lost by evaporation 
and seepage. 

The panic of 1873, dull times east, and 
the failure of the Bank of California in 1875, 
made it difficult for Mr. Evans to raise the 
large amounts of money which he required 
to carry out successfully his ])lans at Eiver- 
side. On his shoulders rested the task of 
furnishing the "sinews of war." While asso- 



^'•iipi^ 



5^ 





190 



ROUBIDOU'S RANCH. 



ciated with him were such heavy capitalists 
as Gen. H. W. Carpentier, Wilham Alvorcl, 
Gen. C. I. Hutchinson and others, they were 
not putting up any money; indeed, it was 
understood that they were not to he called 
upon for any. Their stock of the new cor- 
poration was represented b}^ unimproved 
lands. Mr. Evans once told me that he had 
personally borrowed on his own note from 
Gen. Carpentier the large sum of $40,000, 
which went into improvements at Riverside, 
chiefly the construction of the lower canal 
and rebuilding of the old canal, as the flumes 
had begun to decay. Sayward had no money, 
and it was certainly Mr. Evans who saved 
Riverside from going to smash during the 
next few years. 

One of Mr. Evans' first acts was to take 
back the block which had originally been re- 
served for a plaza and cut it up into business 
lots. His excuse for this act was that the 
plaza had never been improved by the citi- 
zens. One of the first purchasers of a lot was 




KOUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



191 



E. D. Burt, of Auburn, CaL, who bought 
the southeast comer and on which he erected 
the first brick buikling in Eiverside. It was 
completed in the fall of 1875, was two stories 
high and cost about |5000. He and his 
brother Frank opened a general store. On 
the north side of Burt's was a one-stor}- 
brick occupied by J. W. Hamilton, as a drug 
store on one side and E. F. Cunningham witli 
a small stock of general merchandise on the 
other side. Hamilton put in a soda foun- 
tain, and I remember once bujang a small 
piece of ice from him at nine cents a pound. 
On the north of Hamilton was another one- 
story brick building erected by John Boyd 
and in which he ran a saloon for ten years or 
more. In 1876 Mr. Evans made an arrange- 
ment with the owners by which second 
stories were added to the above named one- 
story buildings and some more frontage 
added, making about 100 feet and two 
stories high uniform with Burt's. This made 
a pretentious block, and was opened as a 



192 



KOUBIDOUX S EANCH. 



hotel by Cminingliam & Moocty. Mr. Ham- 
ilton and Mr. Moody were married to sisters 
of Mr, Cmniingliam and they were from 
Canada. The hotel was known as the Eiver- 
side House. Adjoining this block on the 
north was a one-story frame building built 
and occupied by Isaac Marsh as a tin shop. 
On the northwest corner was a two-story 
wooden building occupied as a saloon. This 
building is still standmg around the corner on 
Seventh street. Directly opposite on Main 
and Seventh was a small bakery. ISText south 
Smth's old boarding house was vacant at the 
time of wdiich I write, 1878. About oppo- 
site Boyd's saloon, Jolm Stone, also from 
Auburn, had a one-story brick building as 
a butcher shop. Lyon & Eosenthal had built 
a one-story brick on Main and Eighth south 
of Burt in 1876 in which they carried on 
their business. Dr. Greves went with them, 
taking the postof fice which now had lock and 
call boxes and required a space ten feet 
square owing to largely increased business. 



EOUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



193 



Their old store diagonally across Main was 
vacant. 

Adjoining Lyon & Eosenthal, J. H. Eoe 
occupied a brick of one-story as a drug store. 
Dr. Shugart had his office here. Farther on 
south was another one-story brick in which 
during 1877 was printed the Eiverside News. 
A year later Dr. C. J. Carroll had there a 
small store. The building ua which Hakes 
& Clift had their drugstore was now occupied 
b}^ S. S. Patton as a hardware store. On the 
corner of Mam and A^inth Dr. Gill had a 
one-story residence and office. Across 
IVinth street from him a two-story building 
had been erected, designed for a lodge room 
upstairs and a public hall below, but it was 
mifinished. There was no other building on 
that block. 

West from Lyon & Rosenthal, JS^elson II. 
Ivingsley had a barber shop in a small 
wooden building; next to him was an adobe 
building occupied as a saloon; next to the 
saloon Louis Eubidoux, Jr., had a livery 



194 



KOUBIDOUX'S RANCH. 



stable and corral, and on the corner of 
Market and Eighth George D. Cmmmgham 
had a blacksmith and wagon shop. Diagonal- 
ly across the street E. P. Moody had a 
cabinet shoj) in a one-story adobe building. 

The block on Mam from Eighth to Ninth 
was used as a Imnber yard by E. J. Davis. 
A sawmill had been built on the San Jacmto 
mountains and some lumber from there was 
sold in the Davis yard. 

On the Glenwood block a large two-story 
adobe building had been built in the center of 
the block and was conducted as a tourist hotel 
by Frank A. Miller. To the west of the 
Glenwood, Petchner & x\lder had built a 
new shop, and to the north of them on the 
corner was a livery stable kept by Newcomb 
& Preston. On the Main and Seventh street 
corner of the same block the small adobe 
building formerly occupied by J. S. Love- 
land was a Chinese laundry. Two or three 
one-story wooden buildings owned by Petch- 




ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



195 



ner & Alder were between the laundry and 
their shoj), but unoccupied. 

The foregoing was the business part of 
Riverside in 1878. With nothing to refer 
to except memory, I feel reasonably certain 
that I have named every building from Sixth 
to Ninth. Dr. Craig and his wife were run- 
ning the old Riverside Hotel, so that there 
were three hotels. 

Conditions remained much the same for a 
nmnber of years. New settlers w^ere few and 
growth slow. In 1875, 111 votes were cast 
at the state election and the population of the 
entire colony was estimated at 600. Three 
years later, when the Press was established, 
the advertisements of S. C. Evans estimated 
the population at 1500, which was an over 
estimate, and the colony was then eight years 
old. 

A notable event of 1878 was the arrival 
of quite a large party of New York City 
people, who bought lands in Arlington. 
Among them was James H. Benedict, who 



396 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



built the first residence in Riverside that cost 
over ^10,000. The walls were made of 
adobe and it is still standing. The New 
Yorkers proved to be poor pioneers. They 
were typical of their kind, who constantly 
sigh for ''dear old Broadway;" to them the 
world is bounded on the north by Albany, on 
the east by Newport, on the south by Coney 
Island, and the west by East Orange, N. J. 
All else is mere desert, wilderness and bar- 
barism. They were not q^ood "mixers," and 
soon earned the contemptuous dislike of the 
A¥esterners. They stayed only a few years 
and then returned to 'dear old New York" 
— the most provincial locality in the United 
States and most un-American of all Ameri- 
can cities. 



CHAPTER XV. 

FIRST NEWSPAPERS. 

The first newspaper printed in Riverside 
was called the News, and began existence in 
November, 1875. The proprietors were Jesse 
Buck and Robert A. Davis, Jr., both boys be- 
ing from San Bernardino. I say "boys" ad- 
visedly, as neither of them were much past 
twenty. The former learned his trade in the 
office of the Guardian, a weekly paper estab- 
lished in San Bernardino in 1867 by Henry 
Hamilton. The Riverside News was the first 
and only venture in the newspaper field made 
by the youthful proprietors. The press and 
type upon which it was printed were pur- 
chased from the Guardian office. The press 
was large enough to print one page of a five- 
column paper and was of a style known to 
the printers of that day as an "upside-down- 



198 



EOUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



er." It received this queer name from the 
fact that the form of type when in position 
for printing was face down — hence the name. 
By considerable exertion a strong man could 
cause this press to print from 300 to 600 im- 
pressions per hour. It had been brought to 
California around the Horn in a sailing ves- 
sel and was said to have cost originally over 
a thousand dollars. The type had done duty 
a good many years. It may be easily guessed 
that the News typographically was not a 
beauty. A bound file of it is now at the Pub- 
lic Library. I called on the boys before the 
first number was issued and set a stick or two 
of type. At that time I was employed on the 
San Bernardino Times, which was then ten 
weeks old. A rapid machine operator would 
now set in four hours all the reading matter 
contained in the News. Buck retired from 
the paper after a few months and Davis ran 



^^i^^|^i^j.p^|^^- 












^/^^^ 




EOUBIDOUX'S RANCH. 



199 



it alone until about the beginning of 1877. 
He enlarged it to seven columns folio and 
used a patent outside. W. H. Gould, his 
brother-in-law, loaned his old Ruggles hand- 
press and furnished a new dress of type. The 
paper received very slight support. After 
Davis quit, Gould sent two or three different 
printers to run the paper, but they usually 
spent the cash receipts for medicinal pur- 
poses. Gould finally leased the plant to H. 
J. Rudisill. 

Mr. Rudisill was a gentleman of some 
means and literary tastes, but without news- 
paper experience. He placed a young man 
in charge who sailed under the imposing 
name of Paul B. M. Satterfield, which was 
not his real name, that having been discard- 
ed for reasons best known to himself. He 
lost no time in placing his name in large 
type at the head of the editorial column as 



200 



ROUBIDOU S RANCH. 



"Managing Editor." Satterfield's capital 
consisted of his good looks and a consuming 
appetite for alcoholic beverages. Mr. Rudi- 
sill bore with him awhile, but after Satterfield 
had drunk and gambled away an entire 
month's receipts — said to have been about 
$37 — his resignation was asked for. 

I was then at my father's ranch, a "dry 
claim," about a mile east of Riverside, having 
thrown up my job at San Bernardino. Mr. 
Rudisill came out to see me one afternoon in 
April, 1877, and asked me to come down to 
the ofhce and help get out that week's paper. 
I returned to town with him and the result 
was that I remained and did the work of 
printing the paper that summer. Mr. Rudi- 
sill was compelled to go east on business and 
left James H. Roe in charge as editor. Dr. 
John Hall occasionally helped me set type. 
He had learned his trade in the old country 




EOUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



201 



and was a first class proof-reader. E. W. 
Holmes contributed some editorial matter. 
He was an accomplished printer and writer, 
having been in the newspaper business in 
Massachusetts. The telegraph operator, a 
gentlemen named Huyghens, of fine literary 
tastes, also wrote for it. Altogether the News 
was quite a good paper for those days. I 
think the circulation was about three hun- 
dred copies, subscription three dollars a year. 
The office was in a one-story brick buiding 
about one hundred feet from the southwest 
corner of Main and Eighth streets; Frank 
Miller afterwards had a grocery in the same 
place. The News appeared regularly during 
the summer of 1877. When Mr. Rudisill re- 
turned in November he gave the lease up to 
Gould. The latter, however, had had enough 
of it before and the paper suspended for some 
weeks. It was recuscitated by Jesse Buck 



202 



ROUBIDOU S RANCH. 



and a San Bernardino saloon keeper named 
Lee. Gould became bankrupt and the press 
and type were attached and taken back to 
San Bernardino. The attachment was placed 
in my hands by Judge Horace C. Rolfe of 
San Bernardino, attorney for creditors. I got 
the stuff without much trouble and hauled it 
back to San Bernardino in my farm wagon. 
The old "upside-downer" had previously 
been removed to Colton and the first num- 
ber of a paper in Colton was printed on the 
battered veteran by Scipio Craig. A few 
more issues of the News, very small in size, 
were printed on an amateur press. 

The News suspended publication in Febru- 
ary, 1878, after a checkered existence of two 
years and three months under various pro- 
prietors. 

The work I had done on the News, both 
mechanical and otherwise, had favorably im- 




ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



203 



pressed Mr. Evans. He wished me to get a 
plant and begin a paper on my own account, 
but I frankly told him that Riverside was yet 
too small to afford a field for a newspaper, 
and advised him to buy a plant and hire a 
man to run it. This he positively refused to 
entertain, saying that he did not want any 
ownership or control, that it would be better 
for the paper to occupy an independent posi- 
tion. He finally said he would raise $1500 
from himself and others to purchase the ne- 
cessary material, the same to be repaid by 
advertising and subscriptions. So certain 
was I that success was very remote for the 
new venture that I refused to take hold of it. 
Then George Weeks considered the matter 
and declined it. James H. Koe finally threw 
himself into the breach and said he would 
take it if I would agree to be its printer, to 
which I assented. Our calculations were that 



204 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



it would take about two-thirds of my time. 
Mr. Evans had by this time succeeded in rais- 
ing about $700 or $800, to which he added $250 
for the Riverside Land and Irrigating Com- 
pany. I made a bill of the needed material 
and it arrived about June 20, 1878. John 
Wilbur, Sr., hauled it over from Colton as 
his contribution to the fund. 

The first office was on the east side of Main 
street, about one hundred feet from the south 
east corner of Eighth, in a building not ex- 
ceeding nine by twenty feet, constructed of 
rough boards. It had originally been occu- 
pied as a harness shop, but the harness ma- 
ker hadn't found business enough to afford 
him a living and had gone. When I got the 
press set up its weight made the whole shack 
so "wobbly" that I feared it would fall down. 
I finally saved the whole institution and my- 
self from coming to an inglorious end by put- 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



205 



ting some blocks under those parts of the 
floor where the press sat. After the press 
was in position there was just about room 
enough left for two common type frames, a 
small imposing stone and a very small cabi- 
net in which to keep the advertising type 
cases. Dr. John Hall and E. W. Holmes as- 
sisted in setting the type for the first issue, 
as a matter of accommodation. The paper was 
four pages containing seven columns to the 
page, the inside, or second and third pages, 
being printed in San Francisco — a "patent 
inside." The date of the first issue was June 
29, 1878. 

I had considerable trouble in getting the 
press to work properly, as the bed persisted 
in striking the platen when the latter was 
run under before the impression was given. 
This had the effect of blurring the print. 
Finally Mr. Roe's brother-in-law, William O. 



206 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



Price, who had had considerable experience 
with threshing machines, came to my rescue. 
We did not finish printing the edition of five 
hundred copies until nine o'clock that night, 
and I well remember yet how nearly dead I 
was pulling that old hand press all afternoon 
of that hot day in June. Thereafter on "press 
days" Mr. Roe "rolled" for me, the while 
keeping a lookout for customers at the store 
directly across the street, and whenever a pill- 
buyer went in Mr. Roe would skip over and 
wait on him. My recollections of Mr. Roe are 
extremely pleasant; he was a college man, a 
master of English and a thorough Christian 
gentleman. 

Practising the "art preservative" in the 
little wooden shack proved exceedingly try- 
ing to me. In summer the heat was intense, 
the dust sifted through the cracks into the 
type boxes, and made mud out of the ink. 




ROUBIDOUXS RANCH. 



207 



Whenever a "norther" prevailed operations 
had to be suspended. The office was finally 
moved to another wooden building where the 
Loring opera house now stands, which was 
battened on the outside and lined with cloth 
inside. Some Chinese laundrymen were my 
next-door neighbors, but we got along ami- 
cably. In the course of events this same 
ground was purchased by me and others and 
given to the Citrus Fair Association; a large 
wooden pavilion was erected and after its de- 
struction by fire in 1888 the Loring was built 
in its place. 

On the corner south was a saloon fre- 
quented by the toughest characters in the 
country — Mexicans, Indians, Basque sheep- 
herders, whose flocks ranged the plains east 
of the town. There were then four saloons 
in Riverside. A strong temperance senti- 
ment prevailed even at that time, but the 



208 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



county authorities gave a license to whoever 
cared to pay the price, which, I believe, was 
five dollars a month. 

Mr.Roe had an extremely difficult job on his 
hands. A good many knotty problems were 
then in the incubator upon which a newspa- 
per could hardly remain neutral. There was 
a hot contest between Mr. Evans and the 
"government tract" settlers (of which Mr. 
Roe was one) over water; the question of 
budded and seedling orange trees was not yet 
settled. Bear in mind that but few oranges 
had yet matured in Riverside. It was also 
an open question as to the relative commer- 
cial merits of the orange and the raisin grape ; 
there were warm advocates of "high pruning" 
and "low pruning." Just about that time 
also political party lines were obliterated by 
a fierce contention over the adoption of the 
present state consitution. Through all these 




ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



209 



rocks and shoals Mr. Roe piloted the Press 
with skill and made few enemies. There was 
no lack of good material to fill the columns, 
and valuable contributions from others were 
frequent. With great impartiality Mr. Roe 
gave opponents a decent hearing. Mr. Evans 
never attempted to influence the Press in its 
editorial policy, but was a vigorous writer. 

The growth of the paper was slow, as was 
the town, and for three years it never ex- 
ceeded a circulation of three hundred. Its 
size remained the same for nearly four years. 

While Mr. Roe was getting aid in the edi- 
torial department, I was equally fortunate in 
the composing room. Tramp printers hap- 
pened along occasionally and were glad to set 
a few "sticks" for a meal. Not very long af- 
ter the establishment of the Press an agent 
of a San Francisco publishing house came to 
town. He was a printer by trade and spent 



210 



KOUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



considerable time with me, for which I was 
glad, as ho had no objection to setting type 
while he was waiting. He succeeded in get- 
ting one hundred subscriptions at three dol- 
lars each as a fund for the purchase of books. 
This was the beginning of the public library. 

The first two years of the Press were ex- 
ceedingly dull ones. The growth of Riverside 
had almost ceased, as it was still an open 
question whether oranges could be made to 
pay. I remember well how the old settlers 
used to sit around and discuss in a hopeless 
sort of way as to whether the country ever 
would amount to anything. There was little 
produced to bring in an income, but a good 
many people began to come in '79 and '80, 
who had money, and times improved rapidly. 

L. M. Holt purchased the Press of Mr. Roe 
in December, 1879. I think the purchase 
price was $1500, of which only a small part 




KOUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



211 



was cash, balance on time. Mr. Roe had been 
running a drug store and only a small part 
of his time was given to the Press. Mr. Holt 
had been in the newspaper business nearly 
all his life and was a fine example of the 
Western boomer. He at once commenced 
printing the paper all at home, moved the 
office to larger and better quarters on 
the northeast corner of Main and Eighth 
streets — Lyon & Rosenthal's old store, — and 
then began an aggressive campaign. By 
persistent work on his part he succeeded 
in doubling the circulation of the Press dur- 
ing the year. In the fall of 1880 we became 
partners, but the partnership only lasted two 
months. During the time we printed a 
small daily campaign paper which was called 
the Evening Republican. The only copy o 
this paper in existence I gave to Frank Mil- 
ler, and it is now among the curios at the 
Mission Inn. 



CHAPTEE XVI 

NOTHING BUT ORANGES. 

As the years passed by — 1877, 1878, 
1879, 1880 — it became more evident that 
the one thing to plant at Eiverside was the 
navel orange. The lemon was still consid- 
ered a good proposition, but the cold weather 
of the winters showed that the lemon could 
not stand the degree of cold which the orange 
was able to withstand. The lime could not 
stand the degree of cold that the lemon 
could, and became elimmated from the fruit 
grower's calculations. 

The Southern California Horticultural 
Society held a fair in Los Angeles in October, 
1878, at which there was quite a display 
from Eiverside. The committee on budded 
oranges reported that the navel orange gro^n 
by T. W. Cover was best in every respect; 
rind one-eighth inch thickness, size medium, 
seeds none. 

There were 13 plates of fruit in the first 




ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



213 



class, five being from Eiverside. Shugart 
& Waite had navels, Cover had seedlings also, 
James Boyd seedlings, E. J. Davis, Du Eoi 
— a variety which seems to have been for- 
gotten. 

At the same fair, D. C. Twogood was 
awarded second premimn for Mexican limes ; 
James Boyd, second best table grapes; the 
first premium for best raisins was divided 
between Geo. D. Carleton and E. G. Brown ; 
third premiiun went to Chas. E. Packard, 
Riverside; best dried peaches, James Boyd. 
Eaisins continued to be one of the "stand 
bys" for five years longer, but the returns 
were so poor that the raisin business was 
finally abandoned. 

The first Citms Fair ever held was at 
Riverside in February, 1879. Besides 
oranges, lemons and limes, a considerable 
number of other products were included in 
the exhibit and it is interesting to note a few 
of them : 

H. M. Beers — (owner of the town block 




:u 



ROUBIDOU S RANCH. 



originally planted out by Dr. Shugart) 
Prunes, almonds, olives, China lemon, seed- 
ling orange, lemon. His seedlings were 
from the tree planted in 1870, was the first 
in the settlement to fruit, and that season — 
1879 — was loaded. This tree when nine 
years old, in 1875, bore 60 oranges; in 1878, 
500; in 1879, 2000, and they sold for $37 
per 1000, or $74 for the crop. 

Dr. William Craig, proprietor of the Eiv- 

erside Hotel, showed samples of port wine 

•ade at his Lugonia ranch (near Eedlands) 

which were pronomiced "very fine." No 

l)rohibitiomsts w^ere on the wine committee. 

S. C. Wolfskin, of Solano County, exhib- 
ited two bunches of dates from the only tree 
that had fruited in California. They were 
a great curiosity. 

Two weeks later oranges were reported 
dull in the market (San Francisco) , $35 per 
1000 being about the ruling price. Eaisins 
were $1.75 net per 20 lb. box. 

In January, 1879, oranges 160 to 200 to 




KOUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



215 



the box were $22.50 to $30 per 1000; next 
month D. C. Twogood had returns of $3; $4, 
and $5 per 100. Taking $3 per 100 as an 
average, the crop of Riverside today would, 
at that price, amount to $12,000,000 to the 



growers. 



About the same time, the Press found it 
necessary to answer some questions in regard 
to what was grown at Riverside. Good, 
level land, unmiproved was $40 to $125 Tier 
acre ; improved (bearing oranges) $1000 
per acre, but not many sales had been re- 
ported; town blocks (two and one-half 
acres) unimproved, $500 to $700; im- 
proved $700 to $3500. 

Products, besides barley and alfalfa, 7000 
20-lb. boxes of raisins last year; 50,000 
oranges, about 400 boxes ; lemons the same ; 
limes were not salable ; deciduous fruits, con- 
siderable; by which was meant some dried 
peaches and apricots. H. H. Beers had about 
this time a town block set to blackberries, and 
had a dryer, but the project was a failure > 



216 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



The editor (Mr. Eoe) adds that wood was 
|4 to 14.50 per cord, which was cottonwood 
and willow cut in the river bottoms ; he said 
he was getting so much on subscrption that 
his back yard resembled a wood yard. The 
company permitted wood cutters to get fuel 
from the river bottoms at $2 a cord and cut 
it themselves. 

During the spring of 1879 Albert S. 
White took a *'fruit tree census," which 
showed there were 160,000 orange trees; 
235,000 lemons; 286,000 limes; 35,000 
olives; 131,000 apricots; 30,000 deciduous; 
221,465 vines, Eeduced to acreage this 
would be about 1600 acres in oranges; and 
a total of 5000 acres planted to trees and 
vines. Acreage of alfalfa not given. Ac- 
cording to testimony given in the Price suit 
ihis was about the acreage in June, 1879. 

Oranges were packed unwrapped and 
.^hipped in a common freight car to San Fran- 
cisco. When the Southern Pacific was 
opened to the East in 1881, the first rate 



KOUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



217 



made was |800 per car. The carload ship- 
ments were few. Growers packed their own 
i i uit, hauled it to Colton m their own wagons 
and loaded it in the cars themselves. 
Those who were grape-growing and 
raisin makmg also dried their own grapes, 
did the packing on their own ranches, and 
ihen hauled them in their own wagons to 
Cclton. They were also compelled by the 
•ailroad company to load them into the cars. 
The result of this system was that there were 
as many different varieties and grades of 
raisins as there were packers, and prices were 
various. The grower was frequently 
"skimied" by the commission men. The 
raisin business had its first setback about 
1884. That year was a bad one on account 
of extremely unfavorable weather which pre- 
vailed during the drying season, the davs be- 
ing damp and foggy. A great many raisins 
about half dried on trays were f mi shed 
in dryers, and the result was a very poor 
article of dried grape instead of a raisin. The 



218 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



production had risen to over 225,000 boxes 
of 20 lbs. each, and the business promised to 
be the leading one. After 1884, however, 
vineyards began to be dug up, until finally 
few raisin grapes could be foiuid, the ground 
being replanted to orange trees. After the 
year 1890 it is doubtful if many raisins were 
produced, and it will now surprise many 
residents of Eiverside to loiow that their 
great industry of oranges was at one time 
surpassed by raisins. The growers had 
formed an association, built a large packing 
house and the output was uniformly graded 
and packed. In spite of all efforts the busi- 
ness proved unprofitable compared with 
oranges and was finally abandoned. 

Another ''lost industry" is the apricot. At 
one time the acreage in apricot trees proba- 
bly exceeded 1000. In 1879 the entire crop 
was estimated at 70 tons, in 1881, 150 tons 
and 1882, 400 tons. Dr. Jarvis had the 
heaviest crop, 75 tons; J. B. Crawford about 
60 tons, and Chaffey Bros, about 40 tons. 




ROUBIDOUX S EANCH. 



219 



All these were on the Arlington tract. So 
rapid was the mcrease in production that the 
Riverside Fruit Company was organized to 
cure, pack and sell the various products, 
especially apricots and raisins. A large 
building was put up for the combined pur- 
poses of a cannery and packing house. A 
small cannery had been operated during the 
season of 1880 by the San Jose Packing 
Company but not to exceed 200,000 2-lb. 
cans were put up, chiefly apricots. This 
company removed to Colton the next year. 

The Riverside Fruit Company handled 
about 400 tons of apricots for the season of 
1882, both canning and drying. The out- 
put was splendid in quality. The same sea- 
son were packed about 75,000 boxes of 
raisins. The cannery continued operations 
for a few years longer, but the general giving 
up by growers of both apricots and grapes 
caused the company to go out of business. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

"floating" a grant. 
Grants of lands were made by New Spain 
for three purposes; for town sites, which 
were called ''pueblo" grants; the title to 
these i3ueblo grants was vested in the 
"ajamtamicnto/' or town council elected by 
the citizens, which donated or sold lots to 
actual residents; ''mission" grants, to the 
Catholic church for the purpose of civilizing 
and converting the Indians, lands eventually 
to be given to them as homesteads ; grants to 
private persons for colonization who were 
nominally bound to settle a certain number 
of families on them. This last condition was 
usually lost sight of, as well as dividing the 
Mission grants among the Indians. Town 
lots were given to actual settlers. There was 
no limit to the extent of these gi'ants. The 
pueblo gi'ant of San Diego was 30 miles long. 
The Mission grant of San Gabriel extended 
from Los Angeles to Eedlands, 70 miles. 




ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



i^21 



Eanclio grants were on an equally liberal 
scale. 

To obtain a grant of land, under the laws 
of Mexico, a petition was drawn up, giving, 
as near as possible, a description of the land 
desired; and also statmg the age, nativity, 
and occupation of the petitioner. This peti- 
tion was then forwarded to some local offi- 
cer who would report upon the matter. If 
the report was favorable a grant would be 
issued. Memoranda of such action was 
sometimes recorded in a book kept for the 
purpose, but as often as otherwise it was 
.simply filed away. Final proceedings to 
secure the grant consisted in obtaining the 
approval of the territorial deputation, and 
after California had become a department of 
the territorial assembly, this was not diffi- 
cult. Upon presentation of the matter to 
the assembly, it would be referred to a com- 
mittee, and the report of the committee hav- 
ing been made, upon application to the secre- 
tary, a certificate was given to the grantee. 



222 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



No formal record or registration was made 
outside of the journals of the legislative 
body. Many of these journals became lost 
or were mislaid and when wanted could not 
be found. This carelessness laid the founda- 
tion for litigation which later occupied the 
courts of the comitry for many years and 
cost claimants inmiense sums of money. 

No regular sm*veys were made under 
cither the Spanish or Mexican governments. 
Juridical possession was given the grantee 
by the nearest alcalde or other magistrate, 
but the title was considered complete with- 
out juridical possession. The description 
and boundaries were designated by certain 
landmarks. This was all the law and usage 
of Spain or Mexico required. It made a 
perfect title to all intents and purposes. 

There were instances where attempt was 
made to fix boundaries by survey, but noth- 
ing like accurac}^ could be arrived at through 
the methods employed. In such a case a 
riata of about fifty varas length would be 




ROUBIDOUX'S RANCH. 



223 



procured and this was used as a chain. 
♦Stakes would be prepared and placed in 
position and the surveyor, after setting his 
instrument, would take bearings, with some 
far distant mountain, hill, rock, tree or river 
as a landmark. He would then give com- 
mand to his assistants who would start in the 
directions indicated, urging their horses at a 
rapid pace. Without pausing the stakes 
would be set in the ground here and there, 
until the line had been drawn. It was, how- 
ever, only in exceptional cases that even 
this crude attempt at survey was made. The 
maps made would indicate a tree, a mountain, 
a river, with the number of leagues distant 
from each other. This method of surveying 
was purety Mexican; it was not the system 
used in Spain.* 

After the American occupation of Cali- 
fornia, all private claimants under Mexican 
laws were compelled to prove their titles in 
the United States Court of Private Land 

*Father Juan Caballeria: "Hist. San Bernardino Valley." 



224: 



EOUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



Claims. The first thing clone was an official 
survey by the Surveyor-General of Califor- 
nia. The survey of the Jurupa Grant was 
not made until 1857, ten years after the pur- 
chase by Louis Eoubidoux and twenty years 
after the original grant to Don Juan Bandini. 
Roubidoux had purchased only a small part 
of the Jurupa Grant, and the lines of his 
purchase did not extend to the outside bound- 
aries of the gi'ant an3^where. His eastern 
boundar}^ was about Main street, Riverside. 
Elsewhere has been noted the gift to New 
Mexican families by Don Juan Bandini of 
half a league of land at the upper end of 
Jurupa in exchange for which the colonists 
were to act as ''vaqueros" for Bandini's stock 
and fight Indians. ^NTo surveys were made 
of this land, which was Imown as the "Ban- 
dini Donation." Each man took as much as 
he wished, and no records w^ere made ; there 
was no place or provision for records. 

The survey of 1857 established the bound- 
aries of the Jurupa, but the land court did 




KOUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



225 



not confirm it for years afterwards. A 
patent was finally issued by the President, 
General U. S. Grant, in 1876. 

When Capt. Sayward came to Eiverside 
in 1874 he lost no time in efforts to enlarge 
the boundaries of the Jurupa on the east and 
also to cut down the Bandini Donation. He 
announced early in 1875 that he had dis- 
covered the original ''monument" of stones 
far to the eastward of Pachappa. This 
would have included all the lands then occu- 
pied by squatters and now under the Gage 
canal; he proposed to them some "equitable" 
terms of purchase, about $10 an acre. This 
meant $800 for an 80 acre claim — a small 
fortune in those days. 

The squatters ahnost to a man resolved to 
fight Sayward and his scheme for ''floating," 
as it was called. They met at my uncle 
James Patton's house and subscribed $40 
apiece for the purpose. Judge I^orth was 
their attorney, and he also had 80 acres 
which would be included in the Jurupa if 



226 



EOUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



Sayward successfully ''floated" his line. 
The squatters were Dr. John Hall, E. R. 
Pierce, Alfred Cridge, Priestly Hall, J. W. 
North, James Patton, H. P. Kyes, E. G. 
Brown, J. H. Hornbeck, E. M. Sheldon, 
Ered Sheldon, James Boyd, John Wilbur 
D. S. Strong and Charles Wilbur, represent- 
ing 1280 acres. 

The hearing of the case was in San 
Erancisco and Judge North had little diffi- 
cult}^ in proving Sayward's claim fraudulent. 
The Surveyor-General's office rejected it 
and retained the line of 1857. Two years 
aftei'wards the squatters were made happy 
by an official survey of their lands and they 
were all given an oportunity to "file." Some 
of them had been on the land long enough 
to complete title under the homestead law. 

The trouble with the Bandini Donation 
lasted for ten years. Sayward refused to 
recognize any rights under that grant, and 
told the settlers they must get deeds from 
him. The settlers, who were all Mexicans, 




ROUBIDOUX S KANCH. 



1527 



finally made Father P. J. Stockman their 
trustee. He was the priest in charge at San 
Bernardino and also of Agua Mansa and 
"Placitas del Trujillos," or Spanishto^n. 
Stockman claimed that the Bandini Dona- 
tion went as far south as the ''plaza" in Riv- 
erside. He offered to quit claim town lots 
at |10, §15 or $20 apiece, and man}^ owners 
did so rather than bother with it. 

The matter was finally settled in the Su- 
perior Court of San Bernardino Comity in 
1882, Judge F. E. Spencer of San Jose 
presidmg. It was tried before a j\uy, but 
the verdict of the jury was ''advisory" only. 
Judge Spencer fixed the south boundary of 
the Bandini Donation about three miles 
north of Riverside, commencing at the 
Spanishtown flume and rimning tlience 
across the river in a horseshoe shape. Wit- 
nesses were found who had built a fence in 
1857 on this line, composed of willow poles 
driven into the ground. These poles had 
taken root and in the intervening twenty-five 



228 



EOTJBIDOUX S RANCH. 



years had grown into large trees. Father 
Stockman was made trustee of the land 
awarded mider the Spencer decision; he in 
turn was instructed to find out the extent of 
the homesteads of the twenty-seven claimants 
and deed to them individually. This was 
done, and the ''Bandini Donation" ghost was 
laid along with Sayward's attempt to steal 
2500 acres by "floating" the Jurupa east 
line. 

In 1877, W. 0. Price began suit against 
the Eiverside Land and Irrigating Company 
to compel it to furnish water to him on the 
same terms as those who had bought lands 
from the company. Capt. Sayward had 
claimed that the original squatters on the gov- 
ernment land agreed to give the company 
half their lands for water for the remainder. 
It was well known that no bindino^ contract 
could be made to that effect. \Anien squatters 
r)egan to get title, the company insisted that 
the original verbal agreement be carried out 
or a cash pa3^ment be made for a water 




KOUBIDOUX'S RANCH. 



229 



right of $20 an acre. The right of the gov- 
ernment land settlers to water had already 
been secured to them by law, which made 
five years' use equivalent to a "right." The 
decision of the court was that the company 
must continue to furnish Price with water in 
such quantities as he desired on the same 
terms as to others. This case settled the 
trouble only as far as Price was concerned. 
A great many of the settlers paid the $20 
an acre demanded rather than go to law. 

California adopted a new state constitu- 
tion in 1879 which gave to boards of super- 
visors, city and town councils the power to 
fix water rates. As a matter of course, all 
water companies in the state were strenu- 
ously opposed to it. After the constitution 
went into effect, January 1, 1880, the 
board of supervisors of San Bernardino 
county, in which Riverside then was, fixed 
rates to be charged by the Riverside Land 
and Irrigating company. Riverside at that 
time had no member of the board. The 



230 



ROUBIDOUX S RANCH. 



rates were fixed at figui'es which satisfied 
the water users at least. 

The incorporation of Eiverside in 1883 
placed the complete control of the water 
system in the hands of users. In a year or 
so after that event, Mr. Evans gladly sold the 
entire system to a company composed of the 
water users. Ahout the same time the Santa 
Fe railroad was built through t he valley - 
From that date began the great growth of 
Eiverside. 

The little village numbering eight hundred 
people in 1883, has changed to a modern city 
of seventeen thousand. From the summit 
of Mt. Roubidoux are seen the homes of 
thirty-five thousand. No saloons, no slums, 
and plenty of genuine Christianity. 

Co-operation prevails without eliminating 
individuality. The problems of life seem to 
be solved. 




NOV 13 19118 



